


Fractured Light

by SalineCoelacanth



Series: Ninjago Fusion Au [6]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, M/M, fusion au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26013949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalineCoelacanth/pseuds/SalineCoelacanth
Summary: The ninja start getting back into their fusion training when a mysterious new villain appears who seems to know more about fusions than even the ninja. They must figure out how to stop her before she can use the dark aspects of their fusions to her own advantage.
Relationships: Cole/Jay Walker, Kai/Zane (Ninjago)
Series: Ninjago Fusion Au [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664923
Comments: 16
Kudos: 57





	1. The Voice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Zane starts getting used to his fusions again, he starts to hear a strange noise when he fuses with Cole.

“Are you doing ok?” Fleet asked. Ever since getting back to fusion training, he was always trying to make sure that Techtonic felt comfortable. It took Zane a while to get fully comfortable with Swift, but readjusting to Techtonic and Chip seemed to be going easier for him.

“I’m fine,” Techtonic assured. The two fusions weren’t doing anything stressful, they were just sitting around watching TV, but Fleet was still way more cautious than usual. He wanted to lean over and lay his head on Techtonic’s lap like he used to, but decided against it, not wanting to cause any discomfort for Techtonic. 

The two of them were pretty quiet, which was normal for Techtonic, but completely out of the ordinary for Fleet. Fleet looked up at Techtonic, who didn’t seem to notice. Fleet let out a quiet sigh before grabbing the remote and turning the TV off.

“How about we go outside and get some fresh air?” he suggested.

“Ok,” Techtonic replied.

The two of them walked outside, taking in the beautiful weather. Fleet noticed that Techtonic didn’t react much to the nice weather, but didn’t say anything. He knew Techtonic didn’t react physically to most things and figured it was nothing, but not being able to read how Techtonic was feeling was frustrating to say the least.

“Are you still feeling ok?” Fleet asked.

“Yeah,” Techtonic replied.

Fleet hated the awkward conversations the two of them seemed to be stuck in, but there wasn’t anything he could really do about it. He just had to wait and hope things went back to normal.

Techtonic looked up at one of the trees visible just outside the walls of the monastery. He let out a sigh, catching the attention of Fleet.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Hm?” Techtonic replied. “Oh, it’s nothing, I just… I haven’t actually left the monastery in such a long time.”

“What are you talking about?” Fleet asked. “We went out just a couple of days ago.”

“I mean on my own,” Techtonic clarified. “I used to go out on my own all the time, but now…” He paused for a moment. “I understand why that’s probably a bad idea, but it’s still something I kinda miss doing.”

Fleet didn’t know how to respond, so he just stood quietly. After a while he placed his hand on Techtonic’s arm. Techtonic blinked and looked down at Fleet.

“It’s gonna be ok,” Fleet assured, a smile on his face.

Techtonic returned with a small smile, which was a good sign for Fleet.

“I’ll be right back,” Fleet said, beginning to walk back towards the monastery. 

“Ok,” Techtonic replied, going back to his more monotone expression.

After Fleet disappeared into the monastery, Techtonic looked back towards the sky. Things were quiet, all except for the soft sounds of the breeze. Techtonic blinked again as he started to hear a strange noise. He looked around to see if there was anything around him, but he saw nothing. He kept looking around the area until Fleet came back with some juice.

“Sorry, I was just starting to get really thirsty and-” Fleet stopped as he saw Techtonic. “Uh, is everything ok?”

“I thought I heard something,” Techtonic replied. He gave a shrug. “I guess I was just imagining things.” Techtonic froze as he started to hear the strange sound again.

“Well I don’t hear anything,” Fleet responded. “Maybe we should take a break. Being fused for a long time might be starting to mess with your head.”

Techtonic seemed to completely ignore Fleet as he just kept staring at the sky.

“Techtonic, are you listening to me?” Fleet asked, slight annoyance in his voice.

“What are you?” Techtonic whispered.

“Techtonic, c’mon, let’s go back inside, you need some rest,” Fleet grabbed Techtonic’s arm and started leading him away. Techtonic followed, still looking at the sky until finally looking away.

______________________________________________

“So, how are you doing?” Jay asked.

The four of them had unfused and were sitting around like they normally did when they weren’t busy saving the world.

“I am fine,” Zane assured. He paused to take a sip of his tea before speaking again. “I am glad to be fusing with all of you again. It’s something that I… never realized I missed…”

“Hey, we’re glad to be able to fuse with you again,” Cole replied.

“And you’re sure you’re feeling ok about all of this?” Kai asked.

“Yes, Kai, I am fine,” Zane replied.

“Because you know if you aren’t fine, you need to tell us,” Kai continued.

“Kai, it’s fine,” Cole stopped him. “Zane said he’s fine which means that he’s fine.”

Kai gave Cole a slightly annoyed stare before looking back at Zane with a more worried expression. 

“Kai, don’t worry so much about me,” Zane said. “Ever since I opened up to all of you about what I was feeling, I’ve felt much better about things.”

Jay let out a yawn and stretched. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I am pooped. I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

“We didn’t even do that much today,” Cole replied.

“Well being fused with Kai for an entire day can make you feel a little drained.”

“Hey!” Kai yelled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Cole let out a chuckle. “I can only imagine how tiring being Fleet is. I mean, I get tired just from having to deal with him sometimes.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Jay replied.

Everyone laughed for a little bit before calming down. 

“Alright, Jay has a point though,” Kai said, “It’s starting to get late. I’m pretty sure Lloyd and Nya are already sleeping.”

Everyone got up and started walking away towards their rooms, but Zane stopped Cole before he left the room.

“Cole, can I talk to you real quick?” he asked.

“Uh, sure,” Cole replied. “What is it?”

“It’s about that voice we heard earlier as Techtonic,” Zane explained.

“Voice?” Cole questioned. “Zane, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a voice, it was just some random noise.”

“Perhaps,” Zane replied, “but something about it felt like… it was calling us.”

“Hmm,” Cole thought for a moment. “I can kinda see where you’re coming from,” he replied, “but I think you may just be looking too far into things.”

“Cole, what if this noise we were hearing was important?” Zane asked. “Perhaps it is some special power that Techtonic has that we didn’t know about previously.”

“Uh, I feel like we would have known about something like that sooner,” Cole suggested.

Zane shook his head. “Swift has the ability to see future events, similar to the dreams I occasionally have. I believe Techtonic may have something similar to that.”

“Ok, I tell you what,” Cole said. “If we keep hearing this strange ‘voice’, we’ll do something about it, but if it stops, then you’ll have to admit that it isn’t some ‘special power’. Ok?”

“I… guess that works,” Zane replied.

“Now c’mon,” Cole cut himself off with a yawn. “We need to sleep if we’re gonna work on more fusion training tomorrow.”

Zane nodded and the two of them left the living room.

______________________________________________

A couple of strange figures made their way through the forest. They were quiet as they made their way down the path, no hesitation as they passed anything that could be considered an obstacle. Eventually, they arrived at an opening that seemed to be hidden away. In the middle of the clearing stood a woman with white hair that turned a reddish pink at the bottom. She was speaking to some other people before waving her hand, causing the people to disappear into a red mist. She turned around as the other group approached.

“Any new information from Ninjago City?” she asked.

“No, Mira,” one of them spoke. “It seems that the ninja have been very quiet.”

“Strange,” she replied. “Although I guess it makes sense. There isn’t any trouble for them to deal with.”

“Do you want us to start causing trouble?”

“No no, we don’t want to rush anything,” Mira replied. “Causing sudden trouble like this might ruin the plan. We need to be extra careful and wait until things start moving before we can start causing some mischief.” Mira looked up as she heard the sound of a bird flying towards her. “Ah, there he is.” She held out her arm and a small raven gently landed on it. She waved her hand and the people she was talking to disappeared. “So, my little raven, did the nindroid hear you?”

The raven nodded. “I believe one of his fusions did.”

Mira smiled. “That’s even better than I could have hoped for!” she cheered. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. I’m sure everything will work out as we planned.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK TO MY FUSION SHENANIGANS!  
> I feel like it's been a long time. I've been planning this story for a long time now and finally got around to working on it. I thought I was gonna get it out a lot sooner, but I ended up just feeling burnt out on the fusion au and needed to take a break from it. But now I'm back and I'm so happy to finally be posting this fic since keeping quiet about a lot of things that are gonna happen in this fic has been really hard. What kinds of things am I talking about? Well you're just gonna have to wait and see :)


	2. Call of the Raven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Techtonic continues to heard the strange voice, he decides to try and do something about it.

Some days had passed and the ninja were still training with Fleet and Techtonic. It seemed like things were still the same, but Techtonic couldn’t get the mysterious voice out of his head. He was good at hiding it though. He didn’t want Fleet to worry. He could figure this out on his own without causing problems for Fleet.

“So, I was thinking that maybe we could start doing some combat training again,” Fleet suggested.

“Combat training?” Techtonic questioned.

“C’mon, we’ve been sitting around for almost two weeks now. We’ve haven’t actually trained for battle in forever,” Fleet explained. “I mean… if you still aren’t comfortable, I understand, it’s just-”

“No no, it’s fine,” Techtonic assured. “It just caught me off guard for a second.”

“Why?” Fleet asked. “You should know I love combat training.”

“Sometimes you love combat training,” Techtonic corrected. “It depends on if you’re in a Kai mood or a Jay mood.”

“Ok, fair point,” Fleet agreed. “But right now I’m in a Kai mood and I wanna fight something.”

“Ok,” Techtonic said, standing up. “Getting some fresh air might be nice anyway.”

Fleet smiled and jumped off of the couch. “Alright! Let’s go!” 

Fleet practically ran out of the living room. Techtonic let out a sigh before following Fleet outside. The purple ninja was already setting up the training equipment, not that it took very long to set up. He quickly summoned his kusarigama and swung it towards a training dummy, slicing it in half. 

“Yes!” he cheered. “I missed doing that.” He turned to Techtonic. “Your turn.”

Techtonic nodded and summoned his crossbow, immediately shooting it at one of the moving targets, hitting it dead in the center.

“Man, you’re not even a little rusty,” Fleet commented.

“I’ve always had good aim,” Techtonic replied.

“True, true.” Fleet paused for a moment. “Ok, now do you wanna train against me?”

Techtonic flinched slightly at the suggestion.

Fleet stepped back. “Sorry,” he apologized. “I’m pushing too far, aren’t I?’

“No, it’s fine,” Techtonic assured. “We can do that if you want to.”

“Are you sure?” Fleet asked. “I don’t wanna make you do anything you don’t wanna do.”

“If it makes you happy, it’ll make me happy,” Techtonic replied.

“Alright then.” 

The two fusions went to go take their places. They made sure to lower the training equipment in order for it not to get in the way.

“Don’t worry, this’ll be fun,” Fleet said.

Techtonic nodded, but his facial expression didn’t change. 

Fleet summoned a fireball in his hand and launched it towards Techtonic. Techtonic was able to quickly subdue the fireball by launching a small icy blast towards it. He then launched out a larger ice crystal towards Fleet. Fleet jumped out of the way, easily being quick enough to dodge each of Techtonic’s attacks. 

“You can’t get me that easily!” Fleet taunted. He shot out a blast of lightning that knocked Techtonic back slightly. Fleet then jumped towards Techtonic, readying a kick, but the grey fusion easily moved out of the way, causing Fleet to crash into the wall.

“AGH!” Fleet yelled.

Techtonic was about to help Fleet up when he heard the voice again, although it seemed louder this time. He turned away and walked closer towards the gates of the monastery.

Fleet rubbed his head as he sat up. “Ugh… that wasn’t my best move,” he admitted. “Huh?” he looked over at Techtonic. “Techtonic! What are you doing over there?” he called.

Techtonic stood silently, trying to make out the sound. Something about it sounded vaguely like a song of some sort.

“Techtonic?” Fleet walked over to him. “Are you ok? Look, it wasn’t your fault I got hurt, I’m not even that hurt, I’ve been through a lot worse.”

“I think someone is trying to contact me,” Techtonic replied.

“What?”

“I can’t be sure, but I think someone is calling after me,” Techtonic repeated. “Don’t you hear it?”

Fleet looked around, confused. “Did I accidentally fry your circuits too much or something?”

Techtonic didn’t respond at first. “I could just be imagining things,” he replied.

“Techtonic, I’m sorry for making you do this,” Fleet apologized. “Do you wanna go back inside and rest? I think we could use a bit of a fusion break.”

“You go on ahead,” Techtonic replied, “I’ll be inside in a little bit.”

“Don’t worry,” Fleet said, placing his hand on Techtonic’s arm, “you’re gonna be ok. I’ll make sure of that.” He smiled at Techtonic before starting to walk inside, turning into light and he entered the monastery. Techtonic watched him before he was out of sight. He looked down at the ground, feeling just as confused as Fleet had looked earlier. 

“Perhaps it really is just my imagination,” he suggested. He started to walk inside, but stopped as he heard the song.

_ Techtonic. _

This was the first time he heard it speak clearly.

_ The fusion of tundra. One who seems so lost, yet thinks he is found. _

“Who said that?” Techtonic asked. After there was no response, he walked over towards the gate. 

_ I know you’ve been longing for something. _

Techtonic opened the gates and looked around. He felt a slight breeze as he walked past the walls of the monastery.

_ You are one with the frost and the ground. _

Techtonic started to walk around the walls of the monastery, trying to find the source of the song.

_ Follow me to your destiny. _

He could hear the voice getting louder.

_ Behold the hidden umbra. _

He was definitely getting closer. He could feel it.

_ Follow me to find your dreams. _

Techtonic looked up at one of the nearby trees and saw a small raven sitting in it.

_ Techtonic, the fusion of tundra. _

“Were… were you the one singing?” Techtonic asked.

The bird started to fly away, the song repeating.

_ Techtonic, the fusion of tundra. _

“Wait!” Techtonic called after the bird. He started to run after it.

_ One who seems so lost, yet thinks he is found. _

“What are you?” Techtonic asked. Techtonic quickly shot out a path of ice down the mountain in order to keep up with the raven.

_ I know you’ve been longing for something. _

_ You are one with the frost and the ground. _

“What does that mean?” Techtonic asked. He saw himself nearing the bottom of the mountain and started changing the ice path to one of earth in order to slow himself down.

_ Follow me to your destiny. _

_ Behold the hidden umbra. _

Techtonic finally reached the bottom of the mountain, but the raven was still flying away. Techtonic quickly started running after it again, following it towards the forest.

_ Follow me to find your dreams. _

_ Techtonic, the fusion of tundra. _

The raven started to slow down slightly, allowing Techtonic to catch up completely. He slowed down as the raven started flying closer to him. He held out his arm and the raven landed gently on it. It let out a squawk, much different to the melodic voice it had been singing in before.

“Where have you led me to?” Techtonic asked.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble. Techtonic looked around cautiously. The raven flapped its wings but stayed on Techtonic’s arm. Techtonic looked deeper in the forest and noticed something appear from the ground. He walked closer towards it as the ground began to settle once more. As he neared the strange structure, he quickly realized it was a cave.

“What is this?” he asked. “Is this where you were leading me?”

The raven squawked as a response. Techtonic looked into the cave. It was dark, like most caves, but he could see the faintest light piercing through the blanket of darkness. Techtonic blinked before walking into the cave. The raven began to take flight again, flying alongside Techtonic as he entered the cave.

Techtonic looked around the cave, but didn’t notice anything that stood out.

“I’m assuming if we’re going to find the importance of this cave, we must go to the center,” he said, looking up at the raven. The ground rumbled again slightly, but this time Techtonic didn’t notice. As Techtonic started getting deeper into the cave, the entrance began to close itself.

______________________________________________

“Jay, wake up!”

“No, I don’t wanna go to school today…” Jay mumbled. “WHAH!” Jay screamed as he was splashed with water. He sat up. “Nya, what the heck!?”  
“Cole and Zane are missing!” Nya yelled.

“What!?” Jay replied. “Why didn’t you say anything!?”

“I tried to, but you just kept mumbling in your sleep!” Nya defended.

Jay rubbed his eyes. “What about Kai, did you wake him up too?”

“Lloyd’s working on it,” Nya explained.

The two of them jumped as they heard a loud crash.

“OW! Lloyd! Why did you do that!?” they heard Kai’s voice from the other room.

“You weren’t waking up! I panicked!” Lloyd yelled.

After everyone was awake, they all grouped up in the living room.

“Ok ok, so what do you mean that Cole and Zane are missing?” Kai asked.

“They aren’t here,” Lloyd explained. “We woke up and noticed neither of them were in their rooms.”

“Did you try calling them?” Jay asked.

“Of course we tried to call them!” Nya replied. “But they wouldn’t pick up.”

“That doesn’t sound like them…” Kai responded.

“Lloyd and I were planning to go search the city for either of them,” Nya said. 

“Sounds like a good idea,” Kai agreed. “We’ll go too.”

The four of them nodded before getting ready to head to the city. They all got onto the bounty and headed for the heart of the city as fast as they could. On the way, both Kai and Jay attempted to call Cole and Zane, but just like Lloyd and Nya, they were having no luck.

“I hope they’re ok,” Jay said.

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Nya replied, trying to sound optimistic. “They’re both strong, so if they’re in any trouble, I’m sure they’ll be able to handle it until we show up.”

“Let’s just hurry up and find them,” Kai responded, sounding impatient, although the others knew he was just worried about them.

They reached the city and lowered the anchor before climbing down towards the city. They quickly started asking around, trying to find anyone who had seen either ninja, but it seemed like nobody knew anything. The ninja weren’t giving up just yet, but it was starting to seem more and more hopeless that they would find either of them in the city. They were preparing to head back to the bounty when they noticed trouble.

“Help!” a lady yelled.

The ninja instantly turned towards her and saw her getting her purse stolen by a group of thieves.

“Hey! Stop!” Kai yelled.

He started running after the thieves, the others following. Lloyd stopped as the others continued running.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get your purse-” Lloyd turned around and stopped as he realized the lady was suddenly gone. “What the?”

“Lloyd, c’mon!” Jay called.

Lloyd thought for a moment before running to join the others. The thieves led the ninja towards an alleyway. 

“Ha ha, looks like you’ve got nowhere to run!” Jay taunted.

The thieves looked at each other before grinning and laughing.

“What are you laughing about?” Kai asked.

One of the thieves ran towards Kai with a knife, something that took guts for a common street criminal. Kai easily dodged, but suddenly another one appeared next to him and kicked him to the ground.

“What the? Where did you come from?” he questioned.

The other ninja attempted to fight off the other thieves, but they quickly started to notice more of them were appearing.

“Am I going crazy, or are there more of them than before?” Nya asked.

Lloyd managed to get a good kick on one of the thieves and he disappeared suddenly.

“What?” Lloyd questioned.

One of the thieves laughed. “Do you really have time to fight us all off when your little fusion friend is missing?”

The ninja all froze.

“What are you talking about!?” Kai yelled. “What do you know about Cole and Zane!?”

“I can tell you that you won’t be finding either of them any time soon,” he explained. “At least, not as Cole and Zane.”

“Where is Techtonic?” Jay demanded.

“You’ll see him again,” one of the thieves assured, “when the time is right.”

The thieves started laughing again, until each of them disappeared into a red mist. The ninja all looked around in confusion.

“What happened to them?” Nya questioned.

“I don’t think they were real,” Lloyd explained. “I think they were all just… mirages or something.”

“Mirages?” Kai questioned. “How does that even work? They kicked us and made contact with us!”

“I don’t know,” Lloyd replied, “but maybe Master Wu might know something about this. Come on, let’s get back to the monastery.”


	3. Master of Illusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the ninja go to ask Master Wu about what happened in the city, he tells them the story about the Master of Illusion.

“Master Wu, we need your help!” Lloyd rushed into Master Wu’s room with the rest quickly following.

“Lloyd? What’s wrong?” Wu asked. He looked at all of his students in front of him. “You haven’t been able to find Cole or Zane, have you?”

“No, we haven’t,” Lloyd confirmed.

“But we think we know the culprit behind them disappearing,” Nya added. 

“While we were in the city, we found a group of thieves trying to steal a purse from a woman,” Kai explained, “but when we fought against them, things got weird.”

“They started multiplying and disappearing randomly!” Jay added. 

“When they disappeared, they turned into a strange red mist,” Lloyd said. “Master, do you know about anything like this?”

Wu thought for a brief moment before nodding. “I believe I might know what you’re dealing with.” He turned around and walked over to the window to stare outside. “It sounds like you’re dealing with an elemental master of illusion.”

“Master of illusion?” Jay questioned.

“Yes,” Wu replied. “Back during the Serpentine Wars, we had a master of illusion who was part of Elemental Alliance, but she was far from a soldier.”

“What do you mean?” Lloyd asked. “What were her powers like?”

“Well, as the title suggests, she could create illusions. However, these illusions weren’t very useful in combat. All it took was one hit and they would disappear. Eventually, she stopped helping out in battles all together and focussed more on keeping our spirits high between battles.”

“But if the element of illusion is so weak, how come those thieves were kicking our butts?” Jay asked.

Wu blinked in surprise. He turned back towards his students. “What do you mean?”

“They beat us up pretty good,” Kai explained. “And if they were just illusions, wouldn’t they just disappear as soon as we touch them?”

“Yes, that’s what would normally happen…” Wu started to think for a moment. “It may be possible that this new master of illusion is somehow able to create stronger illusions than the previous holder.”

“How would that even work? How can you just make stronger illusions?” Jay questioned.

“I’m not sure,” Wu admitted. “Were you able to gather any other information about this enemy?”

“No,” Lloyd responded. “We know virtually nothing about them, just that they can apparently make illusions and that they know something about where Cole and Zane are.”

“Did they give any hints about where they were?”

“Nope,” Kai replied. “But I think it’s safe to assume that Cole and Zane are fused.”

“That could be a problem,” Wu said. “There’s no telling what they would want a fusion for, but if they know about how much power a fusion can have, then Techtonic could be in danger.”

“Well then we need to hurry up and find him!” Jay urged.

“Jay’s right,” Lloyd agreed. “We need to get back out there to try and find anything.”

“Maybe if we go back to the city, we’ll find more illusions,” Nya suggested.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Wu replied. 

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get back out there and find some illusions!” Kai said.

The four of them nodded and hurried back to the bounty. It felt strange to be going back to the city so soon after leaving it, but the ninja had no other leads to follow. They had no way of contacting Cole or Zane and the city was the only place where they had seen these illusions. 

When the ninja arrived back in the city, they searched and searched for anything that they thought could be an illusion. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, which made figuring out what was real or fake extremely difficult. After a couple of hours of searching, they were ready to look elsewhere.

“Yeah, I don’t think we’re gonna find anything around here,” Lloyd let out a sigh. “Who knew illusions would be so difficult to spot?”

“Wait a minute, what’s that?” Nya pointed at a shady looking person walking down an alleyway. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary at first, until the person disappeared for a brief moment.

“That has to be an illusion!” Kai said. “Hurry! After them!”

The ninja quickly ran after the illusion, causing multiple people to slam on their brakes as they ran through the streets. They eventually reached the alleyway the illusion was spotted in, but they didn’t see anything else.

“Where did it go?” Jay asked.

“It must’ve disappeared before we got here,” Lloyd suggested. “C’mon, we need to keep looking.”

“Oh, no need to leave so quickly.”

The ninja were all taken off guard by the sudden voice. They looked around until they noticed someone sitting up on one of the buildings, her legs crossed. She then jumped down, waving her hand as a large pillow formed on the ground where she landed. She bounced off of the pillow and landed elegantly on her feet in front of the ninja before giving a bow.

“You’re the master of illusion!” Lloyd yelled. “What did you do with Cole and Zane!”

“Well now, someone’s jumping to conclusions,” the master spoke. “What proof do you have that I have anything to do with your missing friends?”

“Because your illusions from earlier said so!” Jay argued.

“Oh, did they now?” she questioned. She let out a brief laugh. “I guess they were just as excited as I was that they couldn’t help but keep their mouths shut.”

“Who are you?” Nya demanded. “What do you want with Cole and Zane?”

“My name is Mira,” she introduced. “And as you already seem to know, I am the illustrious master of illusion. You’ve clearly heard of me, haven’t you?”

“Shut up!” Kai dismissed angrily. “You’re gonna pay for kidnapping our friends!” Kai ran towards Mira with his sword, but Mira quickly created a wall to block Kai’s attack. She then snuck behind him and knocked him onto the ground.

“First of all, I didn’t kidnap your friends,” she argued. “Your fusion friend decided to follow of his own free will.”

“That’s a lie! Techtonic wouldn’t just follow an evil lady like you!” Kai yelled.

“Actually, that’s definitely something he would do,” Jay reminded.

Kai rolled his eyes. “Jay, you’re not helping.”

Mira laughed. “Look, I have other places to be. I just wanted to be able to see your faces before I’m able to enact my little plan.”

“What's your plan?” Lloyd asked.

“I don’t wanna spoil the surprise,” Mira replied. “Why would anyone want to do that?” she laughed again. “I suppose I will tell you one thing. You will see your Techtonic friend again. But only when he’s ready.”

“Don’t you dare do ANYTHING to him!” Kai yelled. He attempted to attack Mira again, but she quickly created a small army of illusions to block him. 

“I must bid you all farewell,” she said. “But I do look forward to seeing you all again.” Mira quickly made her escape while her illusions blocked off the ninja. As she disappeared, so did some of her illusions, however most of them stayed in order to fight the ninja.

“There’s no way we’ll be able to take on all of them!” Nya argued.

Lloyd started to back away. “This is what she wants,” he said. “She wants us to be distracted by her illusions.”

“Does that mean we should run?” Jay questioned.

“Yeah,” Lloyd replied. “We need to get out of here.”

______________________________________________

Techtonic continued walking through the cave. The raven seemed to get tired and landed on Techtonic’s shoulder.

“You must be exhausted from flying for so long,” Techtonic commented. He gave the raven a gentle scratch under his beak. “I’m sure we’ll be nearing the center of this cave soon.” 

The raven let out a squawk, seeming to be responding to Techtonic. 

“Do you have any other songs to sing for me?” Techtonic asked. 

The raven squawked again.

“I guess I’ll have to take that as a no,” Techtonic replied. 

He continued walking in silence through the cave, continuing to look around at the walls. The walls were still completely barren, but Techtonic knew this cave had to be important. After all, this raven led him to it. He didn’t know what was in this cave, but he did know that he needed to find out.

______________________________________________

The ninja all arrived back at the monastery, successfully being able to escape Mira’s trap. It was much later in the day now and the ninja had spent almost the entire day searching for Techtonic. 

“I hate to say this, but I think we’re gonna have to call it a night,” Lloyd said. 

“No.”

Lloyd and Nya both blinked and turned around. Kai and Jay had fused without either of them noticing. Fleet had tiny embers and sparks fly off of his body, suggesting that the two ninja had just fused into him. Fleet’s eyes were closed and his face was pointed at the ground.

“Guys, c’mon, we’re gonna need rest,” Nya urged.

Fleet looked up at them. “No,” he repeated. “I’m gonna go look for him.”

“By yourself?” Lloyd questioned.

“Fleet you can’t!” Nya argued. “Techtonic is already missing, we can’t have anything happen to you either!”

“If anything goes wrong, I’ll contact you guys,” Fleet replied. “But I can’t just sit around knowing that Techtonic is in danger!”

“Fleet, we’re gonna keep looking for him,” Lloyd said, “but we also need to be well rested in order to keep searching!”

“You can’t just run in recklessly like you always do!” Nya argued.

“I CAN’T LOSE HIM AGAIN!” Fleet snapped. 

Everyone went quiet, neither Lloyd or Nya knowing how to respond. Fleet clenched his fist and stared at the ground.

“I…” Fleet seemed to calm down slightly. “I just can’t lose him again…”

Lloyd and Nya looked at each other before looking at Fleet again. Nya took a couple of steps closer and gently placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Ok…” she responded.

Fleet blinked and looked up at her. “Really?” he questioned.

“Lloyd and I will stay here and keep in contact with you,” she continued. “If you find anything, and I mean ANYTHING, let us know and we can come and help.”

Fleet nodded. He gave Nya a quick hug before turning away and heading towards the monastery gates.

“Good luck,” Lloyd called as Fleet started to leave.

“Thanks,” Fleet replied. He let out a sigh right before opening the gates. “I’m probably gonna need it…”

______________________________________________

Techtonic could start to notice the light getting brighter.

“We’re definitely close,” he said.

“Close to what?”

Techtonic stopped. He turned around as he instantly recognized that voice.

“Fleet?” he questioned. “What are you doing here?”

“I came here looking for you,” Fleet replied. “You kinda left without saying a word.” There was a slight edge to Fleet’s tone, but it didn’t seem that Techtonic noticed.

“Sorry about that,” Techtonic apologized. “I found this raven and I guess I didn’t really think to tell anyone before following it.”

“It’s fine,” Fleet replied. “It’s not like you ever think about others before doing stuff.” Fleet started to walk ahead, but Techtonic stood still.

“What?” Techtonic questioned.

“It’s nothing, really,” Fleet replied. “Let’s just find whatever it is that’s in this mysterious cave.”

The raven let out a squawk before taking flight again, following Fleet. Techtonic started to follow the shorter fusion as well. The group was nearing the light of the cave. Techtonic was glad to have Fleet with him, but he couldn’t help but notice he was being surprisingly quiet. He figured he would have had something to say about all of this, but there was just nothing.

“How did you find me?” Techtonic asked.

“I found a strange cave,” Fleet replied, “Didn’t take too long to figure out.”

“I see…” Techtonic went quiet again.

Finally they reached the source of the light. The cave opened up into a large, bright room. The two fusions looked around while the raven started to fly in a circle. Fleet looked over at a stone pedestal in the center of the room.

“What’s that?” he asked.

Techtonic turned his attention to the pedestal. “Not sure. Let me go take a look.”

Fleet rolled his eyes as Techtonic went to investigate. He followed him, but kept some distance.

Techtonic noticed a strange looking stone on the pedestal. The stone started to float in the air as Techtonic got closer to it. Techtonic hesitated for a moment before reaching his hand out, attempting to grab the stone. However, as soon as his hand touched the stone, it disappeared into a red mist. 

“Well, that was pointless,” Fleet commented. “Alright, c’mon, let’s go home.” Fleet turned around, ready to leave, but stopped as the cave began to shake. “What the? What’s going on!?”

“I don’t know,” Techtonic replied. “But I assume it’s not good.”

One of the walls of the room fell apart and a giant cloud of dust formed as the boulders of the wall fell to the ground. Fleet and Techtonic both looked over and saw that the wall was hiding a secret cavity within the cave. They heard a loud growl as a giant beast crawled out of the cavity, letting out a booming roar as it made itself present.

“What in Ninjago is that thing!?” Fleet yelled.

“Whatever it is, I think it’s angry,” Techtonic replied, summoning his crossbow. 

The beast instantly smacked the walls with its tail, causing rocks to fall from the ceiling. Fleet and Techtonic were able to easily dodge them and Techtonic shot an arrow at the monster. It let out another roar and thrashed around. It smacked Fleet with its tail, smashing the fusion into the wall.

“Fleet!” Techtonic yelled. He ran over to check to see if he was ok. 

Fleet stumbled as he tried to stand up. “That thing is too strong for us,” he said. “There’s no way we’ll be able to fight it like this!”

Techtonic looked at the creature, which looked ready to attack again.

“There might be one way to defeat it,” Techtonic replied. 

He stepped away from Fleet and turned towards the monster. He started focussing on his elemental powers, a swarm of ice and earth circling around his body. Fleet shielded his eyes as Techtonic continued his transformation, releasing a small blast of power as he changed into his true potential form. The monster flinched as the air quickly grew colder, but then let out another roar. Techtonic slammed his fist into the wall. The beast looked around, panicked, as giant ice crystals shot out the wall towards it. It backed away, managing to dodge the crystals, but also trapping itself. Techtonic pointed his hand towards the ceiling, and the whole room began to tremble. The beast looked up as spikes formed in the ceiling. The spikes quickly became loose and started to fall. The creature let out a loud cry as it began being pelted. It crashed into the wall, and the ceiling began to crack. Techtonic looked up at the ceiling beginning to crumble.

“This place is about to cave in,” Techtonic said. “We need to get out of here.” Techtonic was about to leave but was stopped as he was hit by a blast of fire. “ACK!” he screamed in pain, falling onto the ground. He shook his head and looked up at Fleet who had a face of pure hatred.

“You’re not just gonna leave so easily,” Fleet growled.

“What?” Techtonic questioned. “Fleet, what are you-”

“You LEFT me!” Fleet yelled. “You always do this! You leave me behind and always assume that it’s gonna be ok! Well look around! Because of you, we’ve been worried sick looking for you while you were exploring this useless cave!”

“Fleet, I didn’t mean to-”

“No,” Fleet interrupted. “I’m tired of your excuses. You wanted to see this cave so badly, so now you get to stay in this cave.” Fleet started to walk away but stopped, turning back to Techtonic. “I’m not gonna let you leave me again. This time, I’M the one leaving.” Fleet continued walking away, leaving Techtonic alone in the crumbling cave.

“Fleet, wait!” Techtonic reached out his hand, but Fleet made no attempt to acknowledge him. A giant bounder fell, blocking the exit. Techtonic tried to get up, but fell back down, his body beginning to glitch aggressively. “ **Fleet!** ” Techtonic cried, his voice beginning to sound glitched as well. Techtonic backed himself against a wall as everything around him started to fall apart. He felt an extreme pain throughout his entire body. He slammed his back onto the wall, creating large cracks with frost immediately covering the damage. Techtonic breathed heavily, grabbing his head and digging his fingers into his hair. The pain was excruciating and quickly becoming too much to bare. “ **F-Fleet!** ” he cried out again, his voice sounding as if it was split into two. “ **RAGH!** ”

______________________________________________

Nya was pacing around. Lloyd had tried to calm her down, but to no success. 

“He’s fine,” Lloyd assured.

“He hasn’t called us,” Nya replied. “I’m just worried about him. It's really late now, and we don’t know where he is.”

“You need to calm down, Nya, he’s gonna be ok.”

“He is my brother!” Nya yelled. “Well, at least half of him is.”

Their conversation was stopped as they heard the gates outside open. They both hurried outside to see Fleet walk through by himself.

“Fleet! You’re ok!” Nya cheered.

Fleet shook his head.

“You didn’t find him?” Lloyd asked, his voice soft.

Fleet sighed. “No… Nothing.”

Lloyd and Nya walked over to hug Fleet. He didn’t try to push them away, but he also didn’t hug back. 

“We’re gonna find him, don’t worry,” Nya assured.

“I know,” Fleet replied. He let out a yawn and started to walk inside. “But it’s like Lloyd said, we need rest.”

“Speaking of rest, aren’t you going to unfuse?” Lloyd asked. “You don’t want to strain yourself or Kai and Jay.”

“I’m fine,” Fleet assured. “Until I know that Techtonic’s ok, I’m not unfusing.”

Nya let out a sigh. “There’s no arguing with him,” she said.

“I know,” Lloyd replied. He let out a sigh. “Let’s just get some rest for tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I wanted to post this a bit earlier today but my laptop was being really stupid but here I am now.  
> I'm really excited for the next chapter and I've been excited about getting to Chapter 4 specifically for the longest time now. I'm hoping to get around to writing it soon.


	4. An Unlikely Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ninja hear reports of danger in the city and hurry to investigate, but end up seeing something they weren't expecting.

Nya blinked her eyes open as light began to shine into her room. She sat up and yawned, stretching before climbing out of bed and getting ready. She left her room and was about to go check on everyone else, when she heard some noises coming from outside, almost as if someone was fighting. She walked towards the entrance of the monastery and opened the door, instantly taken aback as a fireball flew past. She looked over to see Fleet training, something she didn’t expect to see so early in the morning.

“Fleet?” she interrupted him.

Fleet stopped and looked over at the water ninja. “You’re finally awake I see,” he commented.

“What do you mean ‘finally’?” she questioned, walking down the steps. “It’s still really early.”

Fleet looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was still low. He looked at Nya again. “I guess I didn’t notice.” He turned back to the training equipment and started shooting more fireballs.

“Fleet, did you even sleep last night?” Nya asked.

“Yeah,” Fleet replied, “for like, a couple of hours. I don’t know.”

“Fleet!”

“Look, I couldn’t fall asleep!” Fleet argued. He let out a yawn. “Plus I’m fine, I have plenty of energy to keep me going.”

“You need to save your energy!” Nya replied. “How are we supposed to find Techtonic if you’re exhausted!?”

“Look, I’m fine,” Fleet replied. “If I start getting really tired I could drink some coffee or something, I don’t know.”

“Coffee is the last thing you need.” Nya looked over at the training dummies. Almost all of them had been burned to a crisp. She let out a sigh. “I’m gonna go get some breakfast, you wanna come?”

“In a little bit,” Fleet replied, not taking his attention away. “I want to get some more training in.”

“Ok,” Nya replied, her voice wary. She walked inside to instantly be greeted by Lloyd.

“You just talked with Fleet?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“He didn’t listen when you told him to rest?”

“Yep.”

Lloyd sighed. “I figured that much,” he replied. “I thought maybe he would listen to you over me, but I guess that was just wishful thinking.”

“He’s stressed about Techtonic being missing,” Nya replied. “We can’t be too hard on him.”

“I know,” Lloyd agreed. “I just hope we can find Techtonic soon.”

“We all do.”

“Fleet is still outside training I presume?” Wu asked, walking up to his students.

“He needs to be taking a break,” Lloyd replied.

Wu nodded. He walked over to the window to watch Fleet. “Normally I would be happy about one of my students getting up so early to train,” he said, “but these circumstances have me worried.”

“Why’s that?” Lloyd asked.

“Stress can be very dangerous for a fusion,” Wu explained. “Too much stress for anyone can be dangerous, but for a fusion, it could end up catastrophic.”

“Have you told him about this?” Nya asked.

“I tried to warn him to take it easy,” Wu replied. “But he didn’t want to listen.”

Lloyd placed a hand on Wu’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Master Wu. Fleet may be going a little far, but he’s strong.”

“I know he is,” Wu replied. “And that’s what scares me.”

Lloyd and Nya both gave each other confused looks. 

“What do you mean?” Nya asked.

Wu turned to his students. “Forgive me, but I need to have a chat with Fleet.” He started walking outside, leaving Lloyd and Nya behind. “I didn’t want to tell any of them about this, but I believe I may have no other choice.”

Lloyd was about to follow Wu, but Nya grabbed his shoulder and shook her head. Lloyd looked at Nya and reluctantly stayed put. 

“YAH!” Fleet yelled as he kicked the target. He paused, attempting to catch his breath.

“Fleet,” Wu greeted.

Fleet looked over. “Wu, I already told you I’m not gonna rest.”

“That’s not why I came out here,” Wu replied. “Well, it partially is.”

“Well, whatever you need, can you try to make it quick?” Fleet asked. “I’m a little busy right now.”

“Fleet, this is something important,” Wu said. “Something I should have told you about a long time ago.”

“Huh?” Fleet questioned. “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember when I first told you all about fusion?” Wu asked. “And how I told you that fusions were dangerous?”

“Yeah, I remember,” Fleet replied. “You said that some fusions were dangerous because they had dangerous personalities, but then we proved that wrong.”

Wu sighed. “That is… not the only reason fusions are considered dangerous.” Wu paused for a moment, trying to figure out what to say next. “Fleet-”

“There’s danger in the city!” Nya interrupted.

“What!?” Fleet asked. “Is it more illusions?”

“We don’t know,” Lloyd replied. “But that's most likely what's going on.”

“Even if it isn’t illusions, we need to go figure out what’s going on,” Nya added.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Fleet started heading to the monastery gates.

“Wait, Fleet! I need to tell you-” Wu tried to stop him.

“Sorry Master Wu, but I’m sure whatever’s going on in the city is more important,” Fleet dismissed.

The ninja all left for the city, leaving Wu alone at the momastery. He let out a sigh. “I just hope he doesn’t…” Wu shook his head. “I need to have more faith in my students. He probably won’t do anything  _ too  _ reckless.”

______________________________________________

The ninja arrived in the city, but there didn’t really seem to be much danger at all. They didn’t see any civilians running in a panic, but at the same time, they didn’t see any civilians at all. It was almost as if Ninjago City had become a ghost town. 

“Why is it so cold?” Fleet commented.

“No idea,” Nya replied. “It might just be because it’s still early.” The three of them continued walking around the quiet city. “Lloyd, are you finding anything?” Nya asked.

“I don’t see anything too strange,” Lloyd replied. “But with Mira’s powers, we don’t know who or what could be an enemy.”

“Lloyd has a point,” Fleet agreed. “Anyone could secretly be one of Mira’s illusions. Even you!” Fleet pointed at Nya.

“Fleet, I’m not an illusion,” Nya replied.

“That’s just what an illusion would say,” Fleet argued.

“Would you stop messing around!?” Lloyd interrupted. “We need to keep an eye out for danger!”

“I am keeping my eye out,” Fleet defended. “It’s like you said, ANYONE could be an illusion. But the real question is, are you the real Lloyd or an illusion of Lloyd?”

“Fleet!” Nya yelled.

“I’m just saying,” Fleet replied.

The ninja were interrupted as they heard a quiet laugh. “You’re really paranoid, aren’t you?” They recognized Mira’s voice. 

“Mira! Show yourself!” Lloyd yelled.

“Oh, you remembered my name, I feel so flattered,” Mira replied. A puff of red smoke appeared, causing the ninja to turn away and cough. They looked back and saw Mira standing before them.

“Alright, Mira, what are you doing here!?” Fleet demanded.

“What, am I not allowed to take a stroll through the city?” Mira asked.

“We got reports of danger in the city,” Lloyd clarified. “We know you’re behind it.”

“Oh, you mean the destruction down the street?” Mira questioned. “I didn’t do that.”

“Destruction down the street?” Nya questioned.

“You don’t know?” Mira asked. She let out a laugh before turning around and running.

“She’s getting away!” Lloyd yelled.

The three of them started running after her. She turned the corner, so the ninja followed. They expected her to keep running, but to their surprise, she was standing there. The ninja all stopped as they saw the surrounding area. Rubble littered the area, and trees lay dead in the middle of the streets. 

“What happened here?” Nya asked.

“Wait, this could all just be an illusion,” Lloyd reminded. “You can’t fool us that easily, Mira.”

Mira laughed again. “Like I said, I didn’t do this,” she replied. “He did.”

The ninja blinked, but before they could ask, Fleet was attacked.

“ACK!” Fleet yelled as he felt something lunge at his body, knocking him into the rubble in the distance.

“Fleet!” Nya and Lloyd yelled.

Fleet coughed before getting up. He opened his eyes and saw what looked like a wolf standing in front of him, although they were keeping their distance. Fleet stared at the wolf in confusion. It didn’t look like any wolf in Ninjago. Their fur was white like snow and their eyes were dark, one of them being completely black and partially covered by some darker fur, resembling bangs. Their claws resembled icicles and their legs were blackened.

“What the?” Fleet questioned. “What is that thing!?”

“Do you like my new friend?” Mira asked. “He showed up when I really needed him.”

“That wolf must be one of Mira’s illusions,” Nya said. “If we fight it off enough, it should disappear.”

Lloyd and Nya were about to go help Fleet, but were stopped by a swarm of Mira’s mirages.

“Oh, my friend isn’t an illusion,” Mira assured. “He’s very real.”

Fleet got on his feet and summoned his kusarigama. “I’ll take care of the wolf, you guys take care of Mira!” He yelled to the other.

“Right!” Nya agreed. She pulled out her spear and Lloyd pulled out his sword and the two of them got ready to fight the mirages.

Fleet looked back at the wolf and clutched onto his kusarigama. The wolf glared at him with cold eyes. 

“I don’t know who or what you are,” Fleet said, “but you’re helping Mira so that means I can’t let you win!”

The wolf crouched before lunging at Fleet again. Fleet wasn’t able to dodge in time and the wolf knocked him to the ground digging their razor sharp claws into Fleet’s shoulders. Fleet cringed at the pain, but gathered enough energy to blast the wolf with some fire. The wolf was knocked off and Fleet quickly got back on his feet. He jumped away to keep his distance and also to study his opponent.

The wolf got up and shook their head before glaring at Fleet again. Fleet was taken aback by how quiet the wolf was. He expected it to at least let out a growl, but there was nothing. Fleet grabbed his kusarigama and threw it towards the wolf. He managed to wrap it up and hold it still.

“Ha ha!” Fleet laughed. “I’ve got you now!”

The wolf looked shocked at first, but quickly scowled at Fleet again. The wolf finally made a noise, letting out a soft growl before howling.

“What the?” Fleet questioned. The ground rumbled as two ice spikes shot from the ground, cutting the rope of the kusarigama and freeing the wolf. The wolf crouched again before letting out a bark and launching the icy spikes towards Fleet. Fleet watched in shock, unable to get himself to move. The spikes of ice launched at him, throwing Fleet to a nearby wall and keeping him trapped there.

“Ice?” Fleet questioned. He looked over at the wolf as they slowly approached him. “What are you?” 

Mira started laughing again, walking closer to Fleet. “Are you telling me you don’t know what a fission is?”

“Fission!?” Fleet questioned.

“Oh, let me guess. Wu never told you, did he?” Mira replied.

“Never told us what!?” Fleet yelled. “What is this thing!?”

“Ha ha ha!” Mira laughed. “You don’t even recognize him? Even after everything the two of you have been through?” 

Fleet looked at the wolf’s face, trying to put two and two together before gasping. “Techtonic?”

The wolf stepped back, his face turning to one of surprise rather than anger, almost as if he recognized that name.

“Techtonic!” Fleet repeated. “Techtonic, what happened to you!?”

Techtonic stared at Fleet, before narrowing his eyes again.

“He won’t listen to you anymore,” Mira explained.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!?” Fleet shouted, fire forming around his body and slowly melting the ice.

“I didn’t do anything,” Mira insisted. “He did this to himself.”

The ice melted and Fleet fell to the ground.

“The poor fusion,” Mira continued. “I almost feel bad for him.”

Fleet started to get up when Techtonic launched another ice crystal at him. Fleet braced himself and was able to melt a hole through the ice before it could hurt him.

“Techtonic, please!” Fleet pleaded.

Techtonic growled before lunging at Fleet. Fleet jumped out of the way, continuing to dodge Techtonic’s attacks. 

“Techtonic, listen to me!” Fleet continued. “You have to snap out of it! It’s me, Fleet! I don’t wanna fight you!”

“I knew this would be amusing to watch, but I didn’t think it would be  _ this  _ amusing,” Mira commented. Mira was interrupted from her fun as she was splashed with water. 

“Enough of this!” Nya yelled, her hands covered with orbs of water. 

Mira quickly created a shield which blocked the water, but disappeared immediately afterwards. Lloyd ran up and pointed his sword at her.

“Woah now,” Mira stopped him. “Should you really be focussing on me when your friend is in danger?”

Nya looked over at Fleet who was being chased.

“Fleet!” Nya yelled. “C’mon, Lloyd, we need to help him!”

Fleet kept running until he was backed into a wall. He turned around to Techtonic who was slowly approaching. Techtonic stopped and the ground began to rumble again. Two masses of earth shot from the ground and began closing in around Fleet. Fleet flinched as he prepared for the worst, but to his surprise, the rocks were destroyed.

“Fleet!”

Fleet looked over as Nya and Lloyd ran over to him. They ran in front of him, ready to fight off the wolf.

“No, don’t hurt him!” Fleet pleaded.

“What?” Nya questioned.

“That wolf is Techtonic!” Fleet explained. 

“What!?” Nya repeated.

Techtonic got closer to them along with Mira’s mirages. Lloyd looked around in a panic.

“We need to get out of here!” he yelled.

“What!? We can’t!” Fleet argued.

“There’s too many of them,” Nya agreed. “We need to leave and regroup.”

“We can’t leave him!” Fleet yelled. 

“There’s nothing we can do!” Nya argued.

“But-”  
Nya quickly grabbed Fleet’s arm and started dragging him away as they started to escape.

“We need to go!” Nya repeated.

“We can’t leave him!” Fleet yelled again, although his voice made it sound more like a plea. 

“We can’t help him, Fleet,” Lloyd insisted. “We can’t do anything for him right now.”

As the ninja escaped, Techtonic got ready to chase after them, but was stopped by Mira.

“Let them leave,” she said, creating a glass wall to stop him. “Our work here is done. We showed them what we’re capable of, and that’s all we needed to do.”

Techtonic stared at Mira with narrowed eyes, but remained quiet. As Mira started walking away, he followed. 

Mira let out a sigh. “I would have prefered a stronger fusion,” she commented, “but you proved yourself strong enough for my plan, so you’ll have to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, here's another case of I meant to post this sooner but kept forgetting to proofread it. ANYWAY, Fission Techtonic, or as I like to call him, Emo Wolf! I'm gonna post art of him on my tumblr, probably tomorrow or a couple of days from now because I don't want to spoil anything for people who won't be able to read this right away. I've been waiting for so long to actually post fission art and I'm just glad I'm finally at that point.


	5. Fission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Master Wu explains what fission is so the ninja can hopefully save Techtonic.

The three ninja arrived back at the monastery. Fleet was stomping ahead while the others tried to calm him down.

“Fleet, c’mon, we’re gonna fix this,” Lloyd tried reasoning with him, but it was clear Fleet wouldn’t listen.

Fleet didn’t even look at the others. He just continued walking, leaving small flames with every step. Nya stood back to put out each fire he left behind. Before they could get inside, Wu was already leaving to greet them.

“Did you take care of-”

“What the hell is a fission!?” Fleet interrupted, his voice full of anger.

“I- what?” Wu questioned.

“You know about it, what is it!?” Fleet demanded.

“Fleet, calm down!” Nya yelled.

Fleet glared back at Nya, before taking a deep breath.

“I… I don’t understand. How did you find out about this?” Wu asked.

“We… we found Techtonic,” Lloyd explained.

“And apparently he’s a fission now,” Fleet added, his voice still with an edge. “Whatever that means.”

Wu let out a sigh. “That… was what I wanted to warn you about before you left,” he replied. “That is the reason I wanted you to rest.”

“Well, what is it?” Nya asked. “Why did he turn into a wolf?”

“Fusions, at their core, are made of elemental power and are much stronger than any lone element. A fusion’s true potential form is the fusion unlocking their full power, but they are extremely unstable. As you probably know, their personalities can become out of control, and if the fusion goes through too much emotional stress, fission can happen.” Wu paused.

“So… Techtonic used his true potential form and became really stressed?” Fleet questioned. “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“Well it also happened without any of us around,” Nya replied. “We don’t know what could’ve caused that to happen.”

“Master Wu, why is it called ‘fission’?” Lloyd asked.

“Because while fusion has two components come together, fission causes them to fall apart,” Wu explained.

“How can they fall apart if they’re still fused?” Nya questioned.

“Because fusions can’t unfuse in their true potential forms,” Wu replied. “So instead, the mind of the fusion falls apart while they’re physically still fused. It causes their form to corrupt and turn feral. They can’t remember who they were and only rely on their instincts.”

“Which is why he attacked us…” Fleet realized. 

Everyone looked over at Fleet, who in return was staring at the ground, his face scrunched up into one of regret.

“Fleet,” Nya reached a hand out.

“I told him he was gonna be ok, and that nothing bad was gonna happen to him,” Fleet said. “But now, he…”

“Don’t worry, Fleet,” Wu assured. “There is a way to save him.”

“There is?” Fleet asked, his face lighting up with hope.

Wu nodded. “But I have to go through some of my old things to find it.”

The ninja looked at each other, confused. 

“Find what?” Lloyd questioned.

“A weapon used during the Serpentine Wars,” Wu replied. “It’s the only known thing that can stop a fission.” They all walked inside, heading towards Wu’s room. “I didn’t think I would ever need it again,” he continued, “but I did hold onto it just in case.”

Wu started looking through some of his old belongings before pulling out a sword.

“Here it is,” Wu said. “The Fission Blade.”

“Woah,” Fleet replied. 

The blade didn’t look like anything too special, just a katana, except the metal was a darker color. Looking closer at it, there were tiny golden cracks all over the blade.

“After our fusions went out of control and started turning into fission beasts, we needed to create something to stop them,” Wu explained. “So we made the Fission Blades, swords made out of condensed vengestone, hoping it would be enough to stop them. Luckily for us, it worked.”

“There’s multiple blades?” Nya asked.

“Well, there were multiple blades,” Wu replied. “But after we all decided to give up on fusion, we didn’t keep them. Except for this one. Although we could easily make more of them.”

“Ok, ok, give me the sword so I can go save Techtonic,” Fleet said, reaching for the sword.

“Not so fast,” Wu denied, pulling the sword away. “It is important that you be very careful with this sword. Not only can it turn a fission back to normal, but one hit from it can cause a fusion to unfuse instantly.”

Fleet blinked. “But I can still use it, right?” he asked.

Wu sighed. “Yes, I suppose. The handle isn’t made of vengestone.”

“Yes!” Fleet cheered, grabbing the sword from Wu.

“Fleet, no offense, but maybe Lloyd or I should handle the sword,” Nya suggested. “You know, since we’re at less of a risk.”

“No way,” Fleet replied. “It’s like Wu said, fusions are much stronger than normal elemental masters.”

“What is that supposed to mean!?” Nya yelled.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Fleet replied. “What I mean is we need to use this sword on Techtonic, who right now, is not in the right mindset to decide who is a friend or enemy. He’s too dangerous for one of you to fight, so it should be me.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Lloyd agreed.

Nya sighed. “Fine, you get to keep the sword,” she replied. “Just be careful with it.”

“C’mon guys, I’m always careful,” Fleet assured.

Nya and Lloyd both gave him a skeptical look.

“I’m always careful when I’m not being reckless,” Fleet clarified. “Ok, let’s get out there and save Techtonic already!”

“We don’t even know where he is,” Nya reminded. “We have no idea if he’s still in the city or not.”

“So what, are we just gonna sit around until he shows up?” Fleet questioned.

“That sounds like a pretty good idea,” Lloyd replied.

“Ugh! No!” Fleet argued. “I’m not gonna sit around and wait, I’m gonna go out there and save him!”

“Well then, I guess we’re heading back to the city,” Nya groaned. 

“Good luck, ninja,” Wu said. “And remember, you just need to hit Techtonic with the sword for him to change back.”

The ninja all nodded before leaving once again.

______________________________________________

“Man, this has been too easy,” Mira laughed as she walked down the streets. She was holding a chain of vengestone that was around Techtonic’s neck, almost as if it was a leash for him. “I didn’t think I would get a fission this quickly,” Mira continued. “I guess I just underestimated how stupid you were.” Mira let out another laugh. “Seriously? Who just follows a bird into an ominous cave by themself? I thought you were smarter than that.”

Techtonic remained quiet. The vengestone chain prevented him from fighting back, but it’s not like he would have tried fighting anyway. The two of them reached an unharmed part of the city. 

“This place looks nice,” she commented. “Ok, go do your thing.” Mira took off the chain and Techtonic ran ahead, instantly turning the area around him cold. He started launching ice crystals at trees and causing avalanches in the nearby buildings, causing anyone around to flee in a panic.

“Soon enough, all of Ninjago will fall because of-”

“Mira!”

Mira stopped and turned around to see the ninja.

“Well well well, look who’s back so soon,” Mira greeted. “Did you miss me that- wait a minute.” Mira paused as she saw the sword in Fleet’s hand. “Is that?”

“It’s a fission blade!” Fleet interrupted. “Wu told us about fission and how to fight them! You’re done for Mira!”

“Don’t you think he should’ve told you about all of this sooner?” Mira asked.

“Don’t change the subject!” Fleet yelled.

“I’m just saying,” Mira replied. “Maybe if he said something sooner, then Techtonic wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Shut up!”

Techtonic looked over at the ninja. His eyes widened slightly before he let out a growl. He started to run closer to them, but was stopped by another one of Mira’s glass walls.

“Not so fast,” Mira said. “You need to keep your distance with them. Understand?”

Techtonic glared at Mira, making no indication that he actually understood her words.

“Techtonic, we can help you,” Fleet assured, walking closer to him. “You can come home.”

Techtonic took some steps backwards, his body slightly shaky. He let out a soft growl as the ground began to shake. Fleet stopped and looked down at the ground. A rocky spike shot out, sending Fleet flying. It looked like Techtonic was about to approach him, but was stopped by Lloyd and Nya.

“Techtonic, you have to stop,” Lloyd said, creating a ball of green energy in his hand.

“Fleet, do you have the sword?” Nya called towards him, pulling out her spear.

“Ugh,” Fleet mumbled as he slowly sat up. He shook his head and looked around for the sword, which was laying a bit of a distance away from him. “I got it!” He assured, standing up. Before he could grab it however, someone else grabbed it. “What the?” Fleet questioned. He saw an illusion standing in front of him, but the illusion resembled himself.

“Now, why would you want this sword?” the Fleet illusion questioned.

“Give that back!” Fleet demanded, trying to lunge towards the illusion, but it easily moved out of the way.

“Careful now, one hit from this thing and you’re done for,” the illusion said.

“I already know that!” Fleet yelled.

“Fleet, are you ok?” Nya asked as she pushed Techtonic away from her.

“I’m fine, you guys just keep fighting him off,” Fleet assured. He summoned his kusarigama as he prepared for his next attack.

“Did you ever think that maybe this is better for Techtonic?” the illusion questioned.

“Why would this be better for him!?” Fleet argued, swinging his kusarigama towards his illusion self, but the illusion easily dodged again.

“Maybe he likes being a wolf,” the illusion continued. “Maybe he likes not having you walk all over him.”

“I don’t walk all over him!” Fleet argued.

“Don’t you?” The illusion became surrounded by the familiar red mist, it’s shape changing. Fleet looked away until the mist cleared and stared with wide eyes as the illusion changed to resemble Techtonic.

“I’ve spent my entire existence letting you walk over me,” the illusion said, walking closer to Fleet.

“Techtonic…” Fleet whispered, slowly backing away.

“Shouldn’t I be allowed to make this decision?”

Nya blasted Techtonic away with a water attack while Lloyd shot him with some more small energy blasts. Nya tried to catch her breath before looking over at Fleet again. She gasped as she saw the Techtonic illusion.

Fleet continued backing away from the illusion. “It’s not like that!” he argued.

“Keep telling yourself that,” the Techtonic illusion dismissed. “But did you ever ask if I wanted to be your constant bodyguard all the time?”

“Fleet! It’s not real!” Nya yelled, still attempting to fight off the real Techtonic.

Fleet eventually reached a wall. The illusion drew closer, the fission blade still in hand.

“Maybe this whole fusion thing really was a mistake,” the illusion said. “After all, how 

much suffering could have been prevented if all of this never happened?”

The illusion pointed the sword directly at Fleet’s chest. Fleet put his hand over his torso as a reflex, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down.

“We have been through a lot…” Fleet agreed. He shook his head. “But that doesn’t mean we should just give up!” Fleet shot out a blast of blue fire, giving the illusion no time to react before disappearing in a puff of red smoke, dropping the fission blade. Fleet quickly grabbed the sword, but was quickly taken off guard as he saw a barrage of rocks heading towards him.

“WHAH!” Fleet yelled before rolling out of the way. Fleet looked over to see Lloyd and Nya on the ground, defeated, but attempting to get back up. Fleet then looked to his side and saw the sword, which he had dropped again. “Oh come on!”

Fleet was interrupted as he heard a loud howl and looked over to see Techtonic glaring at him, ice spikes shooting from the ground around him. Techtonic began running towards Fleet, growling as he got closer. 

“WHAH!” Fleet yelled again. He quickly looked over at the sword and then back at Techtonic. He grabbed the sword and readied it, but didn’t have much time to prepare an attack. Techtonic lunged towards Fleet, and Fleet braced himself, thrusting the sword towards Techtonic. Techtonic stopped as the sword stabbed into his chest. Almost instantly, he backed away and started letting out painful cries. Fleet watched in fear, wondering if it worked or not. Techtonic’s body became shaky and glitchy before turning into light. His body formed again, but this time in his normal form. 

“Ugh…” Techtonic groaned weakly.

“Techtonic!” Fleet cried. 

Techtonic quickly fell over, Fleet rushing over to catch him. He rested Techtonic’s head on his lap and stared at him, worried.

Lloyd and Nya both got up and looked over to see the two of them. 

“NO!” Mira yelled, summoning a mirage army.

Lloyd and Nya quickly ran over to Fleet and Techtonic.

“Is he ok?” Nya asked, slight panic in her voice.

“I think so, but I don’t know for sure,” Fleet replied, placing a hand on Techtonic’s head.

“We need to get him back to the monastery,” Lloyd said.

“Right,” Fleet nodded.

Nya quickly picked up Techtonic as Fleet and Lloyd fought off some of the illusions that were getting closer. 

“The bounty is closeby,” Nya said. “We should be able to get there if we hurry.”

“You go ahead,” Lloyd directed. “Fleet and I will catch up.”

Nya nodded and left towards the bounty as fast as she could while carrying Techtonic. Fleet and Lloyd continued fighting off mirages until they had an easy get away and ran away towards the bounty.


	6. Everything Leaves A Scar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ninja safely return to the monastery and start to question Wu about some things.

“He’s still not waking up.”

Fleet had refused to leave Techtonic’s side the entire time they were on the bounty. Lloyd stayed in the infirmary with him while Nya steered. There wasn’t much they could do since they didn’t know if they even could do anything to help Techtonic.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Lloyd assured. “We’ll get back to the monastery and have Wu look at him.”

Techtonic made a soft mumbling noise, his face scrunching up slightly. Fleet gently rubbed his hand against Techtonic’s cold, metallic cheek. 

“How long is this gonna take?” Fleet asked, slight impatience in his voice.

“We’re going as fast as we can,” Lloyd replied. “It shouldn’t be too long now.”

Normally, Fleet’s impatience would be annoying, but Lloyd understood where he was coming from this time. Lloyd wasn’t really the best at emotional support, but he always tried his best.

“This wasn’t your fault,” Lloyd said.

“I know that,” Fleet replied. “We can’t really blame anyone except for Mira.”

“Yeah,” Lloyd agreed.

The two of them went quiet for a while until the bounty started to come to a stop. Nya entered the room, ready to get Techtonic into the monastery.

“Wu’s already got everything ready for him inside,” Nya informed. 

“Good,” Lloyd replied

They carefully transported Techtonic to the monastery, getting him inside as fast as they could. They rushed him into the infirmary where Wu was already waiting.

“He’s gonna be ok, right?” Fleet asked.

“He should be,” Wu replied. “But we need to check him for any fission scars.”

“What?” Fleet asked.

“I’m sorry, I should have mentioned this before,” Wu apologized. “I wasn’t thinking about the aftermath. Before I can explain though, we need to remove his shirt.”

Nya quickly obeyed, revealing Techtonic’s metallic skin underneath. A large mass of black frost was on his chest. It made a quiet crackling noise as part of it spread.

“What is that!?” Fleet screamed.

“Do not panic, Fleet,” Wu instructed. “It’s easy to get rid of, just use your fire to melt it off.”

Fleet nodded and placed his hands over the black frost, creating small flames over them. He was careful not to actually hurt Techtonic with it, he just wanted the frost to melt off. Eventually, the frost shrunk away until it had all disappeared. Fleet put his arms down and looked at Techtonic’s face, hoping he would wake up.

“Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t wake up for a while,” Wu informed. “With how long he was a fission, it may take a while for his mind to fully rebuild itself.”

“So he’s gonna be ok?” Fleet asked.

Wu nodded. “As long as we keep an eye on him and make sure those fission scars don’t come back, he’ll be fine. If you don’t treat them quickly enough, they can quickly cause fission to happen again. But right now, he just needs to rest.”

Everyone started to leave the room except for Fleet. Wu looked back at him and noticed that he looked like he was contemplating something.

“Fleet? What’s wrong?” Wu asked.

“There’s something I don’t understand…” Fleet replied. “Both times we fought Mira, she mentioned your name, like she knew you.”

“Mira?” Wu questioned.

“That’s right,” Lloyd agreed. “Master Wu, does she know her?”

“How is that possible?” Wu started thinking. “The same Mira?”

“What do you mean ‘the same Mira’?” Nya asked.

“Come, we don’t want to wake up Techtonic,” Wu instructed. 

Lloyd and Nya followed, but Fleet hesitated. He gave Techtonic one last look before leaving the room.

“I knew you were fighting a master of illusion, but I never would have guessed it was the same master from the alliance.”

“Mira was in the Serpentine Wars?” Lloyd questioned. “I thought you said that master of illusion was useless in battles.”

“She was,” Wu replied. “Her illusions couldn’t fight back without disappearing instantly.” Wu started to think again. “Mira was never evil either. Annoying sometimes, but she wasn’t a bad person.”

“Well what happened to her?” Fleet questioned. “Clearly something happened to make her want to attack the city.”

“I’m not sure,” Wu admitted. “She left the alliance shortly after the war was over. None of us were close to her except for…”

“Except for who?” Fleet asked.

“But how would that make her want to become a villain?” Wu seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

Fleet let out a frustrated grunt. “Well if he’s not gonna explain anything, then I’m going back to check on Techtonic.”

“Give him some time, Fleet,” Lloyd defended. 

“No, I’m gonna go do something more important,” Fleet dismissed, already heading back to the infirmary.

“He’s just being stubborn,” Nya assured. “I’ll go with him.”

Lloyd stayed with Wu as Nya went to the infirmary with Fleet. Fleet didn’t look over at Nya as she entered the room. He placed his hand on Techtonic’s chest.

“He’s cold!” Fleet panicked. 

“Fleet, he’s always cold,” Nya retorted.

Fleet seemed to ignore her completely as he immediately jumped onto the bed next to Techtonic. He cuddled up against him, wrapping his arms around him.

“What are you doing?” Nya questioned.

“I’m trying to make him warm,” Fleet responded. 

“I-”

“You heard what Wu said! We need to make sure those scars don’t come back!” Fleet defended himself. 

“Ok fine, you have a point,” Nya admitted. She started to leave the room. “I’m gonna grab a snack, you want anything?”

“I’m fine,” Fleet replied.

“Alright.”

Fleet continued hugging Techtonic, despite how uncomfortably cold he was. Fleet forced himself to stay, and eventually managed to fall asleep.

Fleet opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in the city again. He looked around, confused, until he noticed someone standing in the distance. He walked closer until he realized it was Techtonic, standing with his back to him.

“Techtonic!” Fleet cheered. He started running towards him. “Techtonic, I’m so glad that you’re-” Fleet stopped as he noticed Techtonic’s body becoming shaky. Before Fleet could ask him what was wrong, Techtonic fell onto his knees. Fleet could hear him beginning to snarl. He started backing away slowly as Techtonic became louder. Techtonic abruptly turned around, his body quickly changing to resemble his wolf form. Fleet tried to run away, but Techtonic quickly lunged at him, trapping him underneath his claws. Fleet squirmed, trying to escape, but Techtonic’s grip was too strong. He continued snarling at Fleet, until something surprising happened. 

“Fleet, wake up,” the wolf spoke.

“What?” Fleet questioned.

“Wake up!” Techtonic repeated.

Fleet jolted awake, still laying in the infirmary with Techtonic. He took in some deep breaths, but stopped as he felt someone rub his head. Fleet looked up and saw that Techtonic was finally awake.

“Techtonic!” Fleet cheered, pulling him into a full on hug.

“Woah, calm down,” Techtonic said. He gently pushed Fleet off of him. “Fleet, I’m so sorry about hurting you, I wasn’t thinking, I-”

“It’s ok, Techtonic, it wasn’t your fault,” Fleet interrupted. “Mira was the one who made you attack us.”

Techtonic blinked. “Mira?”

“Yeah, Mira, you know, the master of illusion?” Fleet reminded. “She’s the one who made you do all of that stuff.”

“I… what are you talking about?” Techtonic asked. 

“Isn’t that what you're wrongfully apologizing for?”

“No, I…” Techtonic paused, looking away. “Back in the cave… You were so mad at me…” He turned back to Fleet. “I swear I never meant to hurt you, I didn’t think about how leaving without saying anything would hurt you, I-”

“Wait a minute,” Fleet interrupted again. “What cave?”

“The cave with the raven,” Techtonic explained. “And the magical stone. There was that giant monster that I defeated and then that’s when you…”

“Techtonic, I literally have no idea what you’re talking about,” Fleet replied.

“But you were there!” Techtonic argued. “I had to use my true potential form to defeat the monster, and that’s when you attacked me and left me behind. And then… I… I can’t remember anything after that…”

Fleet thought for a moment before gasping. “Mira!” he yelled. “She tricked you to get you to turn into a fission!”

“A fission?”

“We’ll get you caught up on everything,” Fleet assured. He jumped down from the bed. “When I see Mira again, I’m going to-”  
“Techtonic! You’re awake!” Fleet was interrupted as Lloyd and Nya entered the room. 

“Yes, I’m awake,” Techtonic replied, climbing out of the bed. “And I also have a lot of questions. First of all, where’s my shirt?”

“Ok, get dressed and then we’ll have Master Wu explain everything,” Fleet said, handing Techtonic his shirt.

Everyone left the room and waited for Techtonic to join them. He left the infirmary, the look of confusion still on his face.

“You feeling ok?” Nya asked.

“I’m fine,” Techtonic assured. “But I’m still confused about everything Fleet told me. He said something about me… attacking you guys?”

“You mean you don’t remember?” Lloyd questioned.

“Most fusions don’t remember their fission experiences,” Wu explained.

“Wait then… how did you know all of those details about fission?” Lloyd asked.

Wu let out a sigh, looking away. “When you experience something enough, it becomes easy to remember.”

The room went quiet, nobody knew what to say next. Wu shook his head to clear his mind.

“We’ve all had a long day. Why don’t we rest for a little bit?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter chapter, but hopefully that's ok. I might take a short break with this fic because my motivation to work on, well, a lot of things, has kinda dwindled a bit. Of course now that I say this, my motivation is probably gonna come back instantly just because I said that.  
> Point is, don't be surprised if I don't post a new chapter for this fic in a while and PLEASE do not bug me asking when the new chapter is gonna come out on ANY of my fics because that is one of the quickest ways people can kill motivation for me.


	7. A Storm Approaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ninja decide to take a break for some fusion training in order to destress

“So, you guys don’t remember anything that happened?” Nya questioned.

“No,” Cole replied. “After we were left alone, everything just went black…”

Everyone was taking a much needed break, trying to figure out what exactly Mira’s plan was, but it was becoming extremely difficult because Wu couldn’t think of anything and Cole and Zane didn’t even remember seeing Mira when she captured them. Zane himself was being really quiet ever since unfusing.

“I think she wants to destroy the city,” Jay suggested. “Or at least cause a bunch of damage. Although I have no idea why.”

“But if she really wanted to destroy the city, couldn’t she just do it with her illusions?” Kai questioned.

“Maybe they don’t work like that?” Jay replied.

“I don’t know how her powers work anymore,” Wu said. “I never knew the element of illusion could become so powerful.”

“Maybe she’s using something to make herself stronger?” Lloyd thought. 

“It didn’t look like she had anything,” Kai pointed out. “Maybe she just-” Kai stopped as he saw Zane abruptly get up and leave the room. He let out a sigh. “I’ll go check on him.”

Kai followed Zane into the other room. The nindroid had his arms wrapped around himself and his head was pointed towards the ground.

“Zane, c’mon,” Kai said, his voice gentle, “we need all the help we can get with figuring out Mira’s plan.”

“You… you said we hurt you when we were fused, correct?” Zane questioned.

“Zane, that wasn’t your fault,” Kai explained. “None of us even knew that could happen!”

“I just… I feel like it was my fault that Techtonic…”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Kai assured. “You need to stop blaming yourself for everything!”

Zane didn’t respond, instead, he just remained silent.

Kai stood there, soon realizing that he wasn’t going to get a response. “Do you wanna take a break from all of this?”

“That would be… nice,” Zane admitted.

“Great, let’s go tell the others and we can do some fusion training to get our mind off of things,” Kai replied.

Zane nodded and followed Kai back into the other room.

“Jay, that makes no sense!” Cole said as they walked back into the room.

“You never know,” Jay replied. “It could happen.”

“Ok guys, I think we’ve had enough time to theorize,” Kai interrupted. “Who’s up for some fusion training?”

“But we just-” Jay tried to argue.

“Look, it’s for Zane, ok?” Kai whispered to Jay. He turned back to Zane. “Ok Zane, are you ready?”

“Yes,” Zane replied.

“Cool, let’s do this then,” Kai said, grabbing his hand.

Zane gave Kai a confused look. “Kai, we just trained with Swift last week.”

“Who cares about the schedule?” Kai replied. “I think some Swift training would be nice.”

“We haven’t trained with Chip and Vulcan in a long time,” Zane replied. “What if we take too long to use them again and something bad happens?”

Kai stared at Zane before letting out an annoyed sigh. “Ok, fine, Chip and Vulcan it is,” he replied, walking over to Cole.

“Kai, are you sure about this?” Cole whispered. “You know how Chip and Vulcan can… you know… get out of hand sometimes?”

“We’re just doing training, Cole,” Kai argued. “It’ll be fine.”

“Kai is right,” Wu said. “You all do some fusion training while I try to think more about what Mira could be planning.”

“See,” Kai replied. “It’s a good idea.”

Cole let out a sigh before grabbing Kai, the two of them fusing. Zane watched them form into Vulcan, something that felt somewhat comforting to watch. Jay walked over to the nindroid.

“Alright, our turn,” he said.

Zane nodded and smiled, the two of them fusing as well.

Chip opened his eyes after forming and looked down at his hands. He felt slightly uneasy, but he couldn’t really describe why.

“So,” Vulcan interrupted Chip from his thoughts, “what do you wanna do?”

“Honestly,” Chip replied, “I wanna take a nap.”

“Oh,” Vulcan replied, not really expecting that response. “Ok, go take a nap I guess. I was gonna go make some food.”

“NO!” Chip panicked. “You’re banned from the kitchen, remember?”

“Oh come on!” Vulcan yelled. “I almost burned the monastery down two times. Two times isn’t that much.”

“That’s two more times than anyone else living here,” Chip replied. “You know what, I’m too tired for this. Go do whatever you want, but if you’re gonna try to cook anything, just bring Nya with you or something.”

“Fine,” Vulcan responded. He crossed his arms as he watched Chip walk away. He let out a sigh.

“You really shouldn’t try to cook anything,” Nya said.

“I’ll never get better if I don’t practice,” Vulcan argued.

“No offense, but I’m pretty sure you’re a lost cause,” Nya responded.

“You’re a lost cause!” Vulcan yelled. “I’ll show you!” 

Vulcan stomped off towards the kitchen, Nya following begrudgingly. 

Chip let out a long sigh before sitting down on the bed. He curled into a ball and closed his eyes. The hardest part about taking a nap, was the falling asleep part. Chip rolled over a couple of times before laying on his back and covering his face with his pillow, letting out a muffled groan.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he said to himself. “Why can’t I just be fine with things? Why do I feel so upset right now?” Chip stared at the ceiling, looking at every little imperfection he could find. He felt bored and tired and didn't know how to fix either of those problems. He was about to attempt falling asleep again, when he heard something.

_ Chip. _

Chip sat up and looked around confused.

_ Chip. _

Chip blinked before turning towards the window. He saw a familiar raven sitting right outside. Chip glared at it before standing up to open the window.

“Go away!” He tried to shoo the bird away. “We don’t want you here!”

The raven tilted its head to the side before letting out a squawk.

“Last time you were here you tricked Techtonic!” Chip yelled. “You’re one of Mira’s illusions, I know you are!”

The raven stood there, quietly. It watched Chip without blinking.

“We don’t even know what Mira’s planning! So why would I follow you into one of her traps?” Chip questioned. “Unless…” He started to think for a moment. “Unless I follow you to Mira and find out what she’s planning! That’s the perfect plan!” Chip smiled and turned away. “I gotta go tell the others!”

Right as Chip turned to leave the room, the raven began to fly away. Chip turned back as he heard the raven begin to fly.

“Wait no!” he shouted, running over to the window. “Crap, I’m gonna lose the raven!” He thought for a moment before quickly climbing out the window. “I’ll just have to go after it alone!”

______________________________________________

“I think you should turn the temperature down,” Nya suggested. “You don’t need it to be that hot.”

“I know what I’m doing!” Vulcan yelled.

“You really don’t”

Vulcan took a deep breath. “I could really use some words of encouragement here.”

“Vulcan, if you set it that high, it’s gonna burn,” Nya repeated.

“Ok fine!” Vulcan responded. “Why don’t YOU cook the stupid eggs then? I’m gonna go watch TV or something!”

Vulcan angrily left the kitchen. Nya watched him before turning the temperature on the stove down and poking the eggs with the spatula.

Vulcan was about to sit down on the couch, but stopped. He glanced over towards the hallway.

_ I should check on him…  _ he thought.

Vulcan headed down the hallway, looking for Chip. He walked into one of the bedrooms and noticed the window was wide open. “That’s strange,” he commented. “We usually don’t just leave windows open like this.” He walked over and closed it before looking around the room more. “I thought this was the room he was gonna take a nap in.”

Vulcan started to get worried. He decided to give Chip a call, just to make sure he was ok, wherever he was.

______________________________________________

Chip had made it all the way to the city, following the raven. He eventually lost sight of the bird and was looking around for any other illusions, but wasn’t having any luck. He was ready to give up when he heard his phone begin to ring. He pulled it out, answering it.

“Hello?” he said.

“Chip?” Vulcan replied. “Where are you? I thought you were gonna take a nap.”

“That didn’t end up working out,” Chip replied. “But I saw Mira’s raven and started following it.”

“What!?” Vulcan replied. “Why would you follow the raven knowing that it was Mira’s!?”

“Because I thought it could lead me to her,” Chip explained, slight annoyance in his voice. “I thought if I found Mira, I’d be able to figure out her plan. I was gonna go get you, but then the raven started to fly away before I could.”

“Ok,” Vulcan responded. “Well, are you having any luck?”

Chip sighed. “No, it didn’t end up leading me anywhere.”

“Well that sucks,” Vulcan said. “You gonna be heading back then?”

“Yeah,” Chip replied. 

“Good. You need some rest.”

Chip let out a soft chuckle. “Alright, I’ll see you at the monastery then. I love you.”

“Love you, too,” Vulcan responded before hanging up.

Chip put his phone away and started walking away before he was interrupted.

“Leaving so soon?”

Chip turned around. “Mira! I knew you’d be here!”

“Did you?” Mira questioned. “Or did you just follow my little raven friend  _ hoping  _ I would be here?”

“I-” Chip shook his head. “That isn’t important! What are you planning?”

Mira laughed. “You really think that’ll work?” she questioned. “You probably think you foiled my plans by stopping Techtonic, but I’m adaptable. You didn’t stop anything, you just opened the doors to helping me more.”

“What does that even mean?” Chip asked. “Why would we ever help you?”

“Techtonic helped me.”

“Not of his own free will!” Chip argued.

“It doesn't matter,” Mira replied. “Besides, I already have you right where I want you.”

Mira summoned a bunch of illusions that surrounded Chip. Chip started to zap each of them with lightning until they disappeared. More and more kept showing up around him, and Chip knew he had to change his strategy. He quickly blasted them away to give himself some space. He then kneeled on the ground, creating a large ice pillar to launch himself in the air. When he was airborne, he summoned his slingshot and quickly started pelting the illusions with ice balls before landing back on the ground.

“Wow, you’re a lot stronger than you look,” Mira admitted.

Chip turned towards Mira. “How about you fight me instead of making your illusions do the dirty work?” Chip ran over and attempted to kick Mira, but she blocked it with her arms and pushed Chip back. Chip was taken aback slightly, but quickly shook it off and held up his slingshot, readying a shot. Before he could attack however, two illusions grabbed him from behind. He dropped his slingshot and it disappeared as it hit the ground. Chip quickly got the illusions off of him with some electricity.

Chip took a moment to catch his breath before pulling out his phone. “I’m gonna need some backup.”

“Oh, calling your big strong boyfriend to come help you?” Mira mocked.

“Shut up!” Chip yelled. 

“What, are you too scared you won’t be able to fight me on your own?” Mira continued. “Here, I’ll help you out.” She waved her hand, causing some of her illusions to disappear. “There, I made it a little easier for you.”

“I don’t need Vulcan’s help!” Chip yelled. “I could beat you easily, you just keep making too many illusions! If you weren’t such a coward-”

“Sounds to me like  _ you’re  _ the cowards,” Mira cut him off. “Vulcan could probably defeat all of my illusions with no issue.”

“Oh please, I’ve gotten him cornered multiple times before!” Chip argued. “If Vulcan could defeat you on his own, then I could defeat you on my own.”

“You aren’t doing that good of a job trying to prove it,” Mira mocked.

Chip ran in to try and punch Mira, but was blocked by a mysterious wall. 

“Would you stop hiding behind your illusions already!?”

“I’m just using my powers to help win the fight,” Mira defended. “Isn’t that what everyone would want to do in my situation?”

“Oh, I’ll show you power!” Chip yelled, his body bursting into a blast of energy. 

Mira looked away from Chip as he created a blinding light. She looked up as the sky began to turn cloudy. She looked back at Chip who began floating off of the ground in his true potential form. She grinned until she saw Chip turn around, completely obliterating all of her illusions with one blast of lightning from his hand. Chip turned back to Mira, his eyes very narrow.

“You’re next,” he warned.

Mira quickly ran away as Chip flew after her. She created walls to try and slow down Chip. They did slow him down, but it barely made a difference. Mira eventually ran into a dead end. She turned around as Chip floated down closer to her. He held a ball of lighting in his hand.

“W-wait!” Mira pleaded. “Don’t you want to show mercy?”

“No,” Chip replied without hesitation. He was about to launch his attack at Mira, but stopped as he heard his name.

“Chip?”

Chip turned around to see Vulcan staring at him.

“Vulcan?” Chip questioned.

“Chip, what are you doing!?” Vulcan yelled.

“Vulcan, I- She’s evil!” Chip defended himself.

“So you’re just gonna kill her!” Vulcan argued. 

“Vulcan!” Chip’s body glitched slightly. He shook his head, thinking for a moment before turning back to Mira. “You’re trying to trick me with an illusion!” he yelled.

“Oh, you’re just gonna blame her?” Vulcan asked. “You can’t just shift the blame like that!”

“I’m not shifting blame, I’m-” Chip’s body glitched again. “AGH!” he screamed in pain before shooting Vulcan with the lightning blast. Vulcan disappeared, revealing that he was indeed an illusion. “You can’t trick me that easily!”

“So it was an illusion,” Mira said. “But what would the real Vulcan think of this? You can’t just expect everything to be ok! A real hero would show mercy, and what are you doing now?”

“St-stop!” Chip demanded, backing away. He started to fall down to the ground, landing on his knees.

“You don’t need an illusion to know that Vulcan would be disgusted in you,” Mira said, standing up. She started walking around Chip, surveying him as if she were a vulture.

“Shut up!” Chip yelled. “ **SHUT UP!** ”

“Just remember, that you can ease the pain,” Mira said. “You can let go of all of this and forget everything. You won’t be upset about hurting others if you can’t comprehend what you’re doing.”

“I- I’ll never- help you!” Chip yelled.

“It’s too late for that,” Mira replied. “I don’t need to see you fission to know that you’re already a monster.”

Chip flinched. He tried to keep himself together, to keep his mind from falling apart, but it felt like he was trying to prevent an entire building from collapsing in on itself. 

“You’re a monster.”

Chip looked up as an illusion of Vulcan glared down at him. Suddenly, an army of Vulcan illusions were everywhere, calling him a monster. Chip knew they weren’t real, he knew they weren’t the real Vulcan, but they looked like him, and they sounded like him. 

“ **STOP IT!** ” Chip shouted, icy tears falling from his face. A loud boom of thunder sounded from the clouds as they started swirling in the sky. “ **STOP IT!** ”

Chip’s entire body was glitching out. Ice crystals formed around his body and lightning started shooting everywhere. Chip was trying to cling onto something to keep himself stable, but there was nothing left to hold onto.

“ **AAGH!** ” Chip let out one last scream as he felt his mind fall apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost forgot to post this because I was reliving my childhood trauma by watching Finding Nemo (seriously I don't know why I was obsessed with that movie when there were multiple scenes that scared the crap out of me)  
> ANYWAY! I kind of thought this break was gonna be longer, but I'm happy that it didn't last too long because I always feel bad when I take forever to update fics even when people tell me that it's fine


	8. Sleet Shocked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a mysterious storm starts to spread through Ninjago, the ninja head to the city to investigate.

Vulcan sat on the couch, watching TV. He was starting to get a little tired and debated whether or not he should try lying down to take a nap. He let out a yawn before Lloyd entered the room.

“Where’s Chip?” he asked.

“He should be back soon,” Vulcan replied.

“Ok, where did he go?” Lloyd questioned.

“He was trying to find out stuff about Mira,” Vulcan explained. “I called him a while ago and he said he was heading back.” Vulcan thought for a moment. “You know, he should’ve been back by now…”

Lloyd started to feel slightly concerned. He jumped slightly as he heard a quiet rumbling sound coming from outside. 

“What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Vulcan replied. 

The two of them went over to a nearby window to look outside. They quickly noticed that the sky, which had been completely clear and blue, was growing darker as storm clouds rolled in.

“That’s weird,” Lloyd commented, “it was supposed to be a really nice day today.”

“Yeah, that is weird…” Vulcan agreed. He watched as the storm clouds began rolling in before feeling a sudden sense of panic. “Go get Nya,” he ordered.

“What? Why? What’s-”

“Just go get her!” Vulcan demanded. “This is really bad and we need to get to the city as fast as we can.”

“Ok,” Lloyd replied, running off to get Nya.

Vulcan turned back to the window, staring at the sky with dread. “Chip, what did you do?”

______________________________________________

They arrived at the city as fast as they could, bringing a fission blade just in case. The sky was completely covered with grey clouds and the air was very cold. As they got further into the city, hail began to fall from the clouds, although it was small and relatively harmless.

“Yep, this looks like Chip’s doing,” Nya said as they arrived.

“What are you guys talking about?” Lloyd asked.

“Let’s just say this isn’t the first time a storm like this showed up out of nowhere,” Vulcan explained. “Everyone, look around and be careful. When Chip gets like this, he can get… scary…”

Nya shivered slightly, although Lloyd couldn’t tell if it was because of the cold air or something else.

The three of them were all on edge as they searched around for Chip. Everything was very quiet, which just made the atmosphere feel all the more ominous. Vulcan had expected to see some form of destruction, some signs of lightning or ANYTHING, but there was nothing. Just small pellets of ice that fell from the sky.

Nya looked up at the clouds. “Uh, guys, is it just me, or does it look like the clouds are coming from somewhere?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Lloyd replied.

“Look at them,” Nya pointed. “They look like they’re spreading out from somewhere.”

“Like right there,” Vulcan added, pointing up at the clouds. Lloyd and Nya looked to where he was pointing and noticed one cloud that didn’t seem to be moving at all, unlike all of the other clouds.

“But if that’s where the clouds are coming from,” Nya said, “then where’s Chip?”

Vulcan continued staring at the cloud until he noticed that there was something on it. He created a small ball of fire in his hand before shooting it up at the clouds. A small part of the cloud next to the main one disappeared before the empty spot was filled in by a new cloud.

“Vulcan, what are you doing?” Nya asked.

“There’s something on that cloud,” Vulcan said. “But I can’t tell what it is without clearing out some of these clouds first.”

He shot out some more fireballs, clearing a little more or it before it became filled up again. Lloyd and Nya started helping out until they were able to clear enough space to get a good look. They saw what looked like a small bird sitting peacefully on the cloud. His head was pale blue and the rest of his body was white. Vulcan’s eyes went wide.

“Chip!?” he yelled. “He… he’s a bird!”

“Wait a minute,” Nya said. “Is he sleeping?”

Upon further inspection, they quickly noticed that his eyes were closed and he was indeed sleeping on the cloud. Before the ninja could try to get a better look at him, the clouds reappeared again, blocking their view once more.

“That’s weird,” Lloyd commented. “If he’s a fission, why is he so… calm?”

“Right now I’m focussed on how we’re gonna get to him,” Nya responded. “I don’t think we’ll be able to fly the bounty close enough, it’s too dangerous.”

“And if he’s a bird, he can probably just fly away if we wake him up,” Vulcan added. Vulcan thought for a moment before coming up with an idea. “Wait, you guys know that saying, right? Kill two birds with one stone?”

“Yeah,” Lloyd replied, confused.

“I don’t think I like where this is going,” Nya said.

“Well,” Vulcan continued, summoning two small rocks in his hands. “By that logic, we can easily kill one bird with two stones!”

“You’re gonna kill him?” Nya questioned.

Vulcan quickly realized what he just said before throwing one of the rocks behind him. “You’re right, we only need one rock.”

Vulcan took aim, readying to chuck the small rock at Chip.

“Vulcan, maybe this isn’t a good idea,” Lloyd said.

“I’ve thrown rocks at him before, it’ll be fine,” Vulcan assured. He threw the rock, but it missed. Vulcan gave an annoyed grunt before trying again.

“I’m with Lloyd on this one,” Nya stepped in. “You saw how dangerous Techtonic was, and this is Chip we’re talking about! I think we can find another way.”

“I’ve got this!” Vulcan yelled as he continued throwing rocks. It was clear that Lloyd and Nya wouldn’t be able to convince him to stop his plan. Eventually, Vulcan actually managed to throw one of the rocks at the correct cloud.

“I think I got him!” Vulcan said. 

Everything was quiet for a moment as the hail stopped. Then, suddenly, they heard a very loud squawking noise and a giant blast of lightning erupted from the main cloud. The clouds parted from the sky, and the tiny bird was now wide awake, his wings now spread open. He glared down at Vulcan, his eyes completely blank.

“I think you made him mad,” Lloyd said.

“I think I did, too,” Vulcan admitted.

Chip let out another angry screech before flying off of his cloud and speeding down towards Vulcan, lightning shooting off of his body.

“WHAH!” Vulcan screamed before running away.

Nya pulled out the fission blade, but before she could use it, Chip sped by her. A giant piece of hail fell onto Nya’s head. She looked up and realized that the gentle hail pellets had quickly become much bigger than before.

“Vulcan, I think you just made things ten times worse!” she yelled.

“I see that now!” Vulcan responded, still running away from Chip. Chip launched out a bolt of lightning that Vulcan just barely managed to dodge. “Get him with the sword already!”

“How!?” Nya questioned. “He’s flying too fast to get a hit in!”

“Well do SOMETHING!” Vulcan argued.

Nya shot a ball of water towards Chip, but he was able to quickly turn around and freeze the water before it could hurt him. Lloyd then attempted to shoot a blast of green energy, but Chip easily overpowered him with a blast of lightning. Lloyd was knocked down as the lightning blasted him. Chip turned his attention back to Vulcan, who had stopped running. 

“Ok, enough funny business!” Vulcan said. He stomped on the ground, and rock spikes shot up towards Chip. He dodged most of them, but ended up getting hit by one of them. He let out a painful squawk as he fell onto the ground.

“AH! Chip!” Vulcan yelled, running over to him in a panic. As he got closer, he realized just how tiny Chip was as a fission, which threw him off guard a little bit. Before he could react, Chip quickly got up again and blasted Vulcan away with a lightning attack. Vulcan’s body hit one of his rock spikes, and out of nowhere, he was pelted by the hail which seemed to have condensed itself where Vulcan was. 

“Ow! Ow!” Vulcan yelled. “Stop that!”

Surprisingly, the hail did stop, or at least lessened in abundance. Vulcan shook his head and saw Chip standing quite a distance away from him, charging a large blast in his beak.

“Oh crud,” Vulcan said before Chip shot him with the massive blast. It was enough to blast through the rocks and leave Vulcan feeling defeated as he laid on the ground, further away. He flinched as he tried to get up. Chip opened his wings up again before flying towards Vulcan. Vulcan had managed to push himself up slightly, but stopped as he felt Chip land on his back, his sharp talons digging into his back. Vulcan clenched his teeth as he felt tiny shocks all over his back. Chip leaned down and pecked at Vulcan’s back, creating even more tiny shocks with each peck. He squawked again in Vulcan’s ear, ready to blast him again.

“Welp, this won’t be the first time I’ve been bested by a lightning bird,” Vulcan commented, fully accepting his fate.

Chip was about to attack one last time, but was stopped as something sharp stabbed him in the back. Nya breathed heavily as she stood with the fission blade in hand, quickly pulling it out of Chip’s back. Chip let out multiple glitchy squawks as his body started turning back to normal.

“You… ok?” Nya asked, out of breath.

“Yeah, I’m’-ACK!” Vulcan was interrupted as Chip’s body fell over on top of him.

Chip let out a weak mumble, before slowly blinking his eyes open. “Ow… my head…”

Nya looked up at the sky as it quickly began to clear up. She looked back at Chip who started to sit up, not even seeming to realize that he was sitting on Vulcan’s injured body.

“What happened? Where’s Mira?” Chip asked.

“That’s a good question,” Nya replied. “Where  _ is  _ Mira?”

“She wasn’t anywhere around here,” Lloyd said, walking over to group up with everyone else.

“Ch-Chip?” Vulcan asked, weakly. “Can you get off of me?”

“Oh, Vulcan!” Chip replied, quickly getting back up. He stumbled slightly, but Lloyd managed to help him stand back up. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was sitting on you.”

Nya helped Vulcan stand up. His gi had a lot of rips in it and he had scratched all over his body. 

“What happened?” Chip asked.

“I hate birds,” Vulcan grumbled. “I officially hate birds.”

“Well that doesn’t seem nice,” Chip argued. “What does that even have to do with what I asked you? I don’t even see any birds, and how would a bird even be able to- oh…” Chip paused. “I was the bird, wasn’t I?”

Vulcan opened his mouth, but he wasn’t able to say anything before Chip started to ramble.

“Oh no, Mira made me fission!” he said. “I’m sorry guys, I tried not to! I tried to fight it, but she got into my head and I couldn’t do anything, I-”

“Chip! It’s ok,” Nya assured, snapping him out of it. “You’re back to normal, and it’s ok now.”

Chip rubbed his arm nervously. He looked over at Vulcan again, this time taking a lot more notice to just how badly hurt he looked. 

“Don’t worry about me,” Vulcan said. “I’m tough, and it wasn’t even your fault to begin with.”

“I still feel bad about it, though,” Chip replied. He gave Vulcan a soft smile. “I uh, I’d hug you right now, but you look like you’d probably be in a lot of pain if I did that.”

“Yeah,” Vulcan agreed. “I honestly don’t know how I’m still standing right now.”

“Ok, enough of this,” Lloyd interrupted. “We need to get back to the monastery before Mira shows up out of nowhere to fight us when we’re already hurt.”

“Lloyd’s right,” Nya agreed. “C’mon guys, let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for each of the fissions, I'm probably gonna post their designs the day after their chapter is uploaded, so for the people from my tumblr, hopefully tomorrow I remember to post the majestic cloud bird (which is what I call him)  
> I have dumb names for pretty much all of them except for one, but we'll get to that when we get to that  
> As for this chapter, I feel like the pacing could have been better, but what can you do. I've never really been the best at fight scenes, so chapters that are basically one big fight scene are a bit of a struggle for me sometimes (which I'm just now realizing how common it is for Chip and Vulcan chapters to just be one big fight scene...) That was a lot of rambling and I apologize since I try not to ramble too much in the notes. I guess I just had a lot more to say this time.


	9. A Simple Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ninja think more about Mira's plan and go to an ancient temple to try to find something that can help.

“Ok, rule number 1,” Kai said as everyone gathered back at the monastery, “no more going out on your own,  _ especially  _ if you’re fused with someone.”

“To be fair, we were gonna get you guys,” Jay defended. “But the stupid bird flew away before we could.”

“That brings me to rule number 2,” Kai continued. “NO MORE FOLLOWING RANDOM BIRDS!”

“We get it!” Cole responded. “We’re not gonna fall for any of Mira’s tricks anymore.”

“I apologize for-” Zane started.

“Rule number 3,” Kai cut him off. “Zane, you're not allowed to blame yourself for this.”

“I-”  
“No exceptions,” Kai insisted.

Zane hesitated before begrudgingly nodding.

“Can we get back to Mira’s motives?” Lloyd asked. “She’s gone after two fusions now, so I think it’s safe to assume that she specifically wants fissions.”

“I still don’t know what she wants fissions for,” Wu stated, “but I think I have an idea of something she could be planning.”

“What’s that?” Jay asked.

“If she wants fissions, it’s quite possible that she could be going after the staff of fusions,” Wu explained.

“There’s a STAFF of fusions!?” Jay questioned.

Wu nodded. “It was a tool that the previous elemental masters used to make fusions more powerful. However, we grew desperate for more power. We continued adding strengths to the staff to further power up our fusions, but it became too much. Instead of giving the fusions a simple power boost, the fusions became overloaded with elemental energy, causing them to fission instantly.” Wu paused for a moment. “If Mira finds that staff, she may become too powerful to fight.”

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Kai asked. “Where’s the staff?”

“I do not know,” Wu admitted.

“You don’t know!?” Kai questioned. “What do you mean you don’t know!?”

“The staff was hidden away a long time ago, but I was not the one who hid it. It was my brother, Garmadon, who took the responsibility of hiding it away,” Wu explained.

“So we need to go find it,” Nya said. 

“That sounds like the best idea,” Cole agreed. “Any ideas of where it would be?”

“I may have some ideas,” Wu said. “I remember an ancient temple that Garmadon and I used to explore around when we were younger. Any treasure that was in the temple has been found a long time ago, so perhaps he could have hidden it there hoping nobody would go there looking for treasure if the treasure was already found.”

“That sounds like a good place to start,” Lloyd decided. 

The ninja quickly got ready to head to the temple. They grabbed some weapons and set sail on the bounty. 

“I haven’t visited this temple in many years,” Wu said. “From what I remember, the entire place is a maze with four different entrances.”

“Do you know which entrance is the right one?” Lloyd asked.

“Sadly, it’s been too long,” Wu replied. “It could be any of them.”

“We’re gonna have to split up, then,” Cole responded.

“There’s four entrances and six of us,” Lloyd said. “So we’re gonna have to have uneven groups.”

“Or we could fuse,” Jay suggested. “We could easily have me and Cole fuse and then Kai and Zane could fuse, and we’d have four people.”

“I don’t know, Jay,” Nya replied, “is fusing really the best idea? What if Mira finds the staff first?”

“Well if all of us search for the staff when she’s only one person, she’s probably not gonna find it before us,” Jay reasoned.

“That makes sense,” Kai agreed. “I usually don’t say this, but we should go with Jay’s plan.”

“But Kai,” Zane argued, “if Mira finds us then-”

“If she finds us, we’ll be prepared,” Kai assured. “Mira may have gotten the best of two fusions, but now we know what to expect.”

Zane looked away, but looked back as Kai grabbed his hand.

“I’ll be here for you this time,” Kai said.

“Ok,” Zane replied. 

Zane gave Kai a hug. Kai returned the hug, causing the two of them to fuse. Nya watched them, still uneasy about this plan. She looked over as Cole and Jay fused as well. She turned her attention elsewhere as she heard the monitor beeping, indicating that they had arrived.

“We’re here,” she announced, lowering the anchor. “Remember to keep in contact, especially if you see something suspicious.”

“We know what to look out for,” Swift assured. “Although, I guess we should probably look out for literally anything. I doubt Mira is here, but she could use anything to fool us.”

“Ha ha, that’s a good point,” Ridge replied nervously.

“She might try a different tactic,” Lloyd said. “From what we’ve been told, she seems to be great at manipulation.”

“Anyone could be an enemy,” Nya agreed.

“A-anyone?” Ridge questioned. 

The others started to climb down the ladder. Ridge looked around nervously.

“Uh, guys? I’m starting to have second thoughts about this plan,” Ridge said.

“What do you mean? You were the one who came up with it,” Lloyd responded.

“No, that was Jay! Only 50% of me came up with that!” Ridge argued.

“Ridge, stop worrying so much!” Swift replied. “We’ll be fine.”

Ridge watched as they all continued to climb down the ladder before finally following them. They all walked to the entrance and saw that right away, the hallway split into four entrances, just like Master Wu had said. 

“Well, we’d better get a start with this,” Lloyd said. 

The ninja immediately split up, walking down each path. Ridge hesitated before walking down the last remaining path, leaving everyone to search alone. The hall was very dark. There was no natural light, which seemed odd. You would think a temple this old would have cracks in the walls or ceilings to let in some form of natural light, but there was nothing. The only thing that made the place slightly brighter was the tiny sparks of electricity generating from Ridge’s body as he looked around in a slight panic.

“Ok, ok,” Ridge rambled as he walked, “this is fine, everything is fine.” 

He continued walking before turning on his communicator.

“Ridge?” Swift asked as he answered. “Did you find anything?”

“N-no,” Ridge admitted. “I just wanted to see if  _ you  _ found anything.”

Ridge could hear an annoyed sigh coming from the other end.

“Ridge, if I found something, I would have let you know,” Swift replied. “Plus we just got here. I doubt any of us have found anything.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Ridge agreed. The two of them went quiet, making the conversation feel awkward. Ridge heard another sigh.

“Was there anything else you needed to talk about?” Swift asked.

“What? No, I’m fine, why would I need to talk about anything?” Ridge questioned.

“So, you wanna hang up now?” Swift asked.

“I, um…” Ridge hesitated.

“Ridge, you need to focus on the mission,” Swift said. “If you need a break, you can unfuse.”

“I don’t need a break!” Ridge snapped unexpectedly.

“Geez, alright then,” Swift replied. “Just… look out for the staff, ok?”

“I’m looking,” Ridge assured.

“Ok,” Swift responded. “I’m gonna hang up now, ok?”

Before Swift could hang up, Ridge did it himself. He let out an angry huff, but quickly calmed down. Ridge kept walking until he arrived in an open room. He entered it, feeling uneasy as he scanned the room.

“Nothing’s gonna hurt you,” he assured himself, “you’re gonna be fine- WHAT’S THAT!?” he screamed. He quickly shot a blast of lightning at the mysterious object, breathing rapidly before calming down as he realized what it was. “Oh, it’s just a rock,” he said before letting out a nervous laugh.

_ Ridge _

Ridge jumped as he heard an oddly familiar voice. 

“Wh-who’s there!?” he demanded, turning around, only to be completely shocked at what he saw.

“Don’t be afraid, Ridge. I’m here to help you!”

Ridge stared at a translucent version of himself standing in front of him, a gentle and comforting smile on his face.

“What is going on?” Ridge questioned. “Who are you?”

“I’m you, silly!” the spirit replied.

“How can you be me if I’m me?” Ridge argued. “Wait a minute. How do I know you aren’t one of Mira’s illusions?”

“How do you know I am one of Mira’s illusions?”

“I… what?” Ridge replied, confused. 

“Look Ridge, I’m worried about you,” the spirit assured. “You’ve been really stressed out in this temple. I’m only here to help you.”

“What even are you?” Ridge asked.

“Well sometimes when a fusion gets stressed out, they see a projection of themself to help them talk through their problems.”

“Wu never told us about this,” Ridge replied. “And how come I haven’t seen you before? I’ve been stressed WAY more than this before.”

“Oh, poor Ridge,” the spirit said. “There’s so much Wu doesn’t tell you. It hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, a little bit…” Ridge admitted.

“Is there something else bothering you?” the spirit asked.

Ridge let out a sigh. “I guess… there are some things I’ve been wanting to get off of my chest…”

Ridge heard a slight rumble and looked over to see the spirit create a rocky seat for the two of them to sit on. He patted the spot next to him, gesturing for Ridge to sit down. Ridge quietly sat down. 

“I don’t know, it’s just…” Ridge looked away, completely avoiding any eye contact. “I feel like ever since getting back from the Never Realm, things have been different. Swift and the others keep trying to act like everything is ok and that none of that stuff happened, but I don’t know… It still kinda gets to me for some reason. I know Swift wasn’t himself when he was the emperor and trying to kill me but… This is stupid, I know it is.”

“Swift did what?” the spirit questioned. “Uh, I mean… I get what you mean.”

Ridge pulled his knees up to his chest. “I’ve never talked to anyone about this for obvious reasons,” he continued. “I don’t wanna cause any problems for them, especially Swift or Zane. His problems were way worse than mine, so I just shouldn’t complain about it. I don’t think the others would care if I did say anything. They would probably just argue that it wasn’t Swift’s fault so I’m not allowed to be mad at him.”

The spirit was quiet for a moment. “That’s kinda fucked up,” he replied.

“No, it’s fine,” Ridge assured. “I just… I just wish I could be friends with Swift again without thinking about… about what happened…”

Ridge was interrupted as the entire room began to shake. He looked over as an avalanche of boulders fell, blocking the exit.

“Oh no! A cave in!” the spirit yelled.

“How is there even a cave in!? We’re not even in a cave!” Ridge yelled.

Ridge rushed over and tried to push the boulders out of the way, but they wouldn’t budge.

“I can’t move them!” he yelled.

“Yes you can!” the spirit encouraged.

“Sorry, did you miss the part where I pushed the boulder and it didn't move?” Ridge retorted.

“No, Ridge, I know you can do it!”  
“But I’m not strong enough!”

“Just use your true potential form,” the spirit suggested.

“Are you crazy!?” Ridge yelled. “I can’t do that! What if I lose control and turn into a monster!? It already happened to Techtonic, and-”

“Ridge!” the spirit interrupted. “I’m you. You can trust me.”

“But how do I know I can trust myself?” Ridge asked.

“Well you did just trust me with your deepest problems you haven’t even talked to your closest friends about.”

“That is a very good point,” Ridge replied, worry still in his voice.

“You can do it, Ridge,” the spirit continued to encourage. “You’ve used your true potential form without going into a fission before. You’ll be fine.”

Ridge thought for a moment before attempting again to push the boulders again. He grunted as he continued to struggle and continued to fail. 

“C’mon!” Ridge yelled. 

“Ridge-”

“I can do this! I have to!”  
“Ridge-”

“I have to be strong!”  
“Ridge!”

“What?” Ridge snapped.

“Just use your true potential form and get it over with!” the spirit yelled.

“I shouldn’t have to use my true potential form!” Ridge argued. “I should be strong enough for this but I’m not! I’m not strong enough for anything!”  
“Don’t say that, you’re amazing.”

“THEN WHY COULDN’T I STOP SWIFT?” Ridge snapped.

The room went quiet, the only sound being that of Ridge’s heavy breathing. Small tears formed in his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away before he curled into a ball, leaning against the boulders. He continued breathing heavily, struggling to keep the tears from forming in his eyes.

“Ridge…” the spirit hesitated, not knowing what to say. “You’ve always been strong.”

“Not when it matters…” Ridge argued. “I know Swift probably thinks I’m weak for what happened in the Never Realm…”

“Don’t let ANYONE tell you that you’re weak!” the spirit snapped unexpectedly.

Ridge looked up at him in surprise.

“You may not need your true potential form most of the time, but you shouldn’t be afraid to use it just because something bad  _ might  _ happen.”

Ridge wiped his eyes. “You’re right.” He stood up, his body glowing. “I shouldn’t be afraid of myself!” Ridge quickly transformed into his true potential form before easily moving one of the boulders out of the way. 

The spirit watched in awe, before his face turned to one of regret. He sighed. “Ridge, I’m sorry about this…” he muttered under his breath. “Even though you weren’t strong enough to move a simple boulder on your own, that’s ok. I’m sure if it was Swift, he would have found a way without putting himself at risk.”

Ridge’s body glitched slightly. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh I’m sorry, I’m just stating the truth. Swift is a much stronger fusion than you,” the spirit continued. “No wonder you’re scared of him.”

“I-I’m not scared of him!” Ridge said before falling to the ground, his body glitching again. “Agh!”

“Ok, maybe you aren’t scared of him,” the spirit continued. “But it’s clear you still hold some form of resentment for what he did.”

“N-no!” Ridge tried to argue. “ **ACK!** ” His body glitched again, even more painful this time.

“I think you need to reevaluate who you trust,” the spirit said. “You trusted me even after you suspected I was an illusion!” He leaned down to meet Ridge at eye level, who at this point was shaking in pain. “I wasn’t even real to begin with. You were just so stupid that you believed everything I told you.”

“I-” Ridge stopped as another surge of pain went through his body. 

“Stop trying to fight the process,” the illusion suggested. “It’ll make it even more painful when it doesn’t have to be.”

Ridge’s body continued shaking until he finally let out a loud roar, letting himself fall apart.

______________________________________________

“Where is that stupid staff at?” Swift questioned as he continued wandering around. He hadn’t heard anything from the others, so he was starting to assume that the staff wasn’t here at all. He was about ready to contact them just to check on them, when he heard a grumbling noise.

“What was that?” he questioned. He looked around before noticing a path that seemed hidden. He walked down it and it led to another, larger hallway. The mysterious sounds began to get louder as he walked down the path. He eventually reached a room with some boulders at the entrance. 

“What the? What happened here?” Swift pushed some of the smaller boulders away before noticing a large, dark mass laying in the room. It seemed to be moving slightly. Swift approached it with caution, creating some fire in his hand to help light the room. He eventually got a clearer look at the creature, which seemed to resemble a bear laying on the ground. It let out another grumble, causing Swift to step back. The bear sat up, revealing just how big it was. It let out a yawn before turning towards Swift, revealing diamond shaped pupils. The crystals covering its body made it obvious to Swift who he was looking at.

“Ridge?” he questioned.

Ridge tilted his head, letting out a confused noise.

“Oh geez…” Swift said, still feeling cautious. “What happened to you, buddy?”

He gently reached his hand out before touching one of Ridge’s legs, which was completely made of a blue crystal. Ridge lifted up his paw.

“Wait!” Swift yelled, but to his surprise, Ridge just gently placed his paw on Swift’s cheek. Swift looked at it, confused, but Ridge quickly pulled Swift to the ground, keeping his paw on Swift’s head and preventing him from moving. Ridge made another harmless, confused noise.

“Can you let go, please?” Swift asked.

Instead, Ridge let out a playful roar as he laid down on top of Swift’s entire body.

“ACK! NO!” Swift shouted. “Ridge! Get off of me!”

Ridge rolled over and yawned. Swift was still trapped, but he was able to free his arms and contact the other.

“Lloyd! Nya!” he yelled. “I need some help here!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boi I had a lot of fun with this chapter. I've been looking forward to this for a long time for multiple reasons, one because I've just been wanting to write the scene about Ridge talking about his problems, but also because of one of if not my favorite fission which I have been calling the chicken nugget bear (don't ask)  
> Anyway, like usual, I'll post art for fission Ridge on my tumblr tomorrow :3


End file.
